“Where To Invest” – James 1:27

Now, we all know that money can’t buy happiness but who among us has never wondered what it might be like to be a millionaire?  There’s nothing wrong with thinking about it every now and then.  Just don’t let it become something that you dwell on.  Don’t let it get in the way of your relationship with the Lord.

Let’s look briefly at this chart (http://www.businessinsider.com/build-a-million-dollar-retirement-account-2015-7) to see what kind of investment we would have to make to be able to retire as millionaires.  The good news is if you start early, it’s not that difficult.  The bad news is that for some of us, it’s going to be very, very difficult.

See the starting ages on the left side?  If you start saving and investing at age 20 you only have to invest $2.00 a day.  That’s easy.  Anybody can do that, right?  But look at age 40.  It’s more than 10 times that amount.  $20 a day doesn’t sound too bad but that’s $7500 a year.  It’s much worse if you wait to start investing at age 50.  $73 a day.  That’s a chunk.  I’m pretty sure I’m not going to make it.  How about you?

Now, what’s really interesting is this:  How much of that money are you going to be able to take into eternity?  When you die and go to Heaven, to spend life without end forever and ever and ever, how much money are you going to need?  None, of course. 

Can you imagine dying and waking up looking at Jesus and He says, “Well done my good and faithful servant!  Now let’s look at your bank account and figure out where you are going to live”?  That would be bad news for most of us.  Thankfully and by God’s great grace we don’t have to worry about that.  But did you know that not everybody’s Heaven is going to be the same? 

While salvation is a gift, there are rewards given for faithfulness in the Christian life as well as the loss of rewards for unfaithfulness.  So when I talk about BOOCOD – the benefits of obedience and the consequences of disobedience – many times these are eternal.  In Revelation 22:12 Jesus says, “Look! I am coming soon, and my reward is with me to pay each one according to what he has done!”

Don’t you want to know what to do and where to invest for eternity?  This life is a wisp of smoke compared to eternity which lasts forever and ever so let’s make sure we invest our time, talent and treasure in things that will last for eternity.  That’s why we are starting this new sermon series entitled, “Where To Invest”.  If you want to know where to invest your money on this earth to become wealthy, you can ask my friend Scott Parrish, which is where I got that chart but if you want to know where to invest for eternity, then I suggest we look at what the Bible says.

Let’s start in the New Testament book of James.  James is between Hebrews and 1 Peter and is one of my favorite books because although it is a small book, it is packed full of great little nuggets of wisdom.  Turn to James chapter 1 and let’s look at just one verse, verse 27, to see where we should invest to make an eternal difference.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

I have heard it said that some people have just enough religion to make themselves miserable.  (Harry Emerson Fosdick)  Do you know anybody like that?  Most of the time, I would say that is exactly what religion is good for.  In fact, I don’t usually have much interest in religion at all.  Neither does the Bible.  Does that sound funny to you?  It’s true.  This word “religion” is only used in five verses of the whole Bible and when it is used it always talks about the outward trappings of worship.

If someone considers themselves to be religious, most of the time it is because they go to church occasionally or maybe they say a prayer sometimes.  But did you know that if all you do is go to church; if all you do is walk through the door, sit in the pew and then check the box “went to church” when it is over then it does you no good?  If all you do is mouth the words of a prayer but you don’t mean them then it is a worthless waste of time.

James says that the only outward expression of religion that is worth a flip; the only outward thing that God says is pure and faultless is when you look after widows and orphans. Everything else has to do with your where your heart is and what your motivation is.  That’s why we don’t normally refer to Christianity as a religion but instead we know it to be a relationship between us and the Father through His Son Jesus.

1 Corinthians 2:11 says, “For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them?”  You can go to church every Sunday and stand up and sit down at all the right times and you may even say a great prayer and put some cash in the plate but if you don’t have a relationship with the Lord then all of those outward expressions of religion don’t mean a thing.

But when you truly have a relationship with God and have the Holy Spirit living inside of you guiding you and helping you then your religion will be lived out and shown for what it is because you will want to help the helpless and you will, in fact, do more than just want to help.  You will help those who need help.

James says that this is “pure and faultless”.  Do you know why this is pure and faultless?  Because it reflects the attributes of God Himself.  Deuteronomy 10 says, “¹⁸ God defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.”

I will say it again.  More than anything else; above your comfort or your happiness, God wants you to be more like Him and when you look after the helpless, you are never more like Him.  The psalmist says in Psalm 107, “They were hungry and thirsty,
    and their lives ebbed away. ⁶ Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
    and He delivered them from their distress.”  It says so in verses 6, 13, 16, and 28.  God looks after the helpless in their distress.  So should we.

You know, I hear all the time about how Islam is a religion of peace.  To me that makes as much sense as a football bat but let’s put aside the fact that that religion, while saying they are for peace, actually seem to be doing the opposite so many times.  Let’s put that aside and think about where people go when they need help.  Is a non-Muslim going to go to a mosque when they are hungry and ask for food?  Do you hear about the Muslim community or the Buddhist community or the Hindus coming together to repair houses or feed the hungry or start coat drives?

That’s the difference between a religion and a relationship.  Jesus died on the cross to be the sacrifice that we could never be because of God’s grace and forgiveness and all we have to do is believe.  Because of that belief; because we have a life-changing relationship with Him, part of that life-change means helping others, especially the helpless who will probably never be able to repay us.  We can never repay Jesus for what he did for us and that inward love for Him spills over into our outward generosity to others.

Now, I get asked all the time when we talk about our food pantry and clothes closet here at the church about how we handle people who might take advantage of our generosity.  It’s a natural question to ask about when does it go from help to enabling when we know somebody has been using drugs or getting drunk and then they come to us to ask for food.

1 Timothy 5 teaches that people who are in need should be helped by their families first of all and that they shouldn’t be lazy.  They should be people who do good deeds and should be busy and not idle.  They should be.  But if they aren’t, that is on them.  That is wrong for them but nowhere does it say in James 1:27 that we should look after the helpless if they meet all the requirements and to refuse them is on us.  That is wrong for us.

Now, when it says to look after those people (and the King James says to visit them but it means more than just make a social call) it means that we should do what is best for them which means to meet not just their physical, bodily needs but to also meet their other needs as well.  In the very next chapter James says, “If one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?”  (James 2:16)

When James says we should look after or visit them it means we should do what is best for them in every way.  I have figured out that while we have been called to minister to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated, we can’t help everybody.  We can’t meet every need.  We don’t have the resources for that nor do I feel that we are meant to meet every need.  Nobody can do that.

But we can help them get to a better place.  Maybe that place is a spiritual place and we can definitely help there.  Maybe that place is to the hospital or the rehab center.  Maybe that better place is a better frame of mind or a better place to live.  Maybe they need to go to Fort Worth or Dallas where they can find a job.  Maybe that better place…is my house.  Maybe it is your house.

On our website and in our bylaws we have written our statement of purpose.  It says that we exist as a church to do whatever it takes to lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.  I’m sure that there are things that our church could do better.  We may disagree on some minor points of doctrine.  Maybe we even need to come up with a couple of rules to go by around here – probably not.

But one thing we do right; one thing we do well and we do it to the glory of God and by His grace is we care for widows, orphans, the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated around here.  I see y’all all the time doing things for people who will never be able to repay you and you do it because you want to.  I see you give to the food pantry and the clothes closet.  That food pantry always needs to be resupplied, by the way, but we never run out.

I see you giving rides to people who don’t have any other way to get around.  I see you comforting those who are hurting.  I see you doing whatever it takes to meet people’s needs so that we can do whatever it takes to lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.

The world’s system of values says that, yes, we should help people.  We should help people when we have plenty of time and when we have plenty of money and when we know that they can pay us back soon and only if they are helping themselves and only when enough people see us so that we can get plenty of credit for it and then be able to write it off our taxes at the end of the year.

James says at the end of verse 27 that we are to keep ourselves from being polluted by the world.  Isn’t that a good word to use for the world’s system of values-pollution?  If our church; if you; if I don’t look after the helpless in our community, then then who is?  The world?  The world, with their polluted system of values, who only help when it doesn’t cost them too much and have no regard for the spiritual needs of people?

I can’t allow that when I have been given so much from our generous Heavenly Father.  The bonus on top of all the blessings we have been given and the blessings we receive here on earth when we help the helpless is that it is storing up treasures in Heaven (Matt. 6:20) that will last for eternity.  That’s a good investment.

Let me close with a story I heard about an old widow lady who lived way back in the sticks of Tennessee.  A deacon in a local church heard about her and just went to check on her to see if she needed anything and found her to be in desperate need.  She had no money, no food, no way to get anywhere and she was very sick.

The deacon asked if she had any family around and the woman said that she had a son in New York who was well-off but never helped her.  She said he was nice enough to write every month but all he ever did was send a piece of paper with some guy’s picture on it.  The deacon looked at one of the letters and found the picture to be of Ben Franklin ($100 bill).

My dear family, we are surrounded by people just like that lady.  I don’t mean they are back-woods widows.  I mean they have no idea that the help they need is just waiting on them to accept it and use it.  They have no idea that they have much greater needs than just their food and the light bill.  They don’t even realize that without that relationship with Jesus they have no hope, not just in this life, but in the next life for eternity.  All they have to do is accept it but how will they hear without someone to tell them and how can we tell them if we don’t meet their physical needs?

How are you going to help anybody if you don’t have that relationship with God through His Son Jesus?  As we bow our heads and close our eyes I want you to think back to the time in your life when you asked Jesus to be Lord of your life; when you repented of your sins - turned away from those sins and asked for forgiveness.  If you don’t remember a certain day or time in your life when you did that, then I would love to talk with you more about what that means.

Come down right now as the music plays.  Don’t wait another minute.

Invitation

Our church will be partnering with the Lake Road RV Park very soon to do whatever it takes to lead people to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus.  We are going to start hopefully next month by just having lunch for them at the park after church under the trees with the hopes of making some friends for the cause of Christ.  I’ll let you know more when I do but I appreciate your help with this.

“A Father’s Wisdom” – 1 Kings 2:1-4

Alright, you have one or two sentences to give me your very best life’s advice.  I want to know what advice you would give me if you could only tell me one or two things.  I remember the best advice I ever got from my dad.  “Just act like you know what you’re doing.”  I’m pretty sure it’s how I got this job and I know it is what I am doing right now! 

Now, tell me why you think people want to give other people advice.  Is it because they want to look and sound smart?  Is it because they think the other person is too stupid to figure things out?  Of course not. 

Years ago I was travelling to Georgia on my motorcycle and was in Mississippi and I was almost out of gas.  It was right after Hurricane Katrina and most of the gas stations were shut down all through the south.  It was getting dark and I didn’t know where I was and was running on fumes so I stopped to ask this guy who was directing traffic if he knew where I could get gas.

He said, “Sure.  Do you know where Hwy such and such is?”  “No sir.  I’m not from around here just point me in the right direction.”  “Well, do you know where such and such road is?”  “Nope! I live in Texas.  Can you just point the way (and hurry!)?”  “Uh, well, do you know where the graveyard is?”  (Sigh) “No, sir!  I don’t!”  With that, he thought a minute and finally asked, “Well, do you see this here road you are on?”  “Yes.  Yes, I do!  I can see the road I am on now.”  “Well, just go east on this road for about two miles and you will see a gas station.”  “Great!  I can do that.  Do they have gas?”

“No.  But you can stop in there and ask them where to go.”

We want advice from people we believe have been through what we are going through and people who see us going through something they have been through want to give us advice and they do that usually because they care about us.  Who better then to give us advice than our parents?  You have a lot in common so you will probably encounter a lot of the same obstacles.  They love you and care for you and don’t want you to make the same mistakes they did and they also want you to have a better life than they did.  So, usually parents give the best advice.  The challenge is getting your kid to listen and actually follow that advice.

The Bible is full of advice given from an older and wiser person to someone they care about.  Can you think of any biblical advice that has meant something to you?  One of my favorites is in Joshua chapter 1, verses 6-9.  Since it is from God and spoken to Joshua, it’s not really advice.  It’s actually a command but I think it makes good advice coming from anybody.

Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.  ⁷ “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Three times God says to be strong.  We know He’s not talking about being physically strong.  He is saying to be spiritually and morally strong and He tells Joshua how to do it and the benefits of doing it.  That’s how to give advice.  That’s good stuff!

I can’t help but wonder if David had read that passage in Joshua and when it came time for him to give advice to his son, he incorporated some of that into his farewell speech.  It’s possible that he had read it but we don’t know.  But if you want to read what David told his son, Solomon, at the end of David’s life, then turn to the book of 1 Kings, chapter 2, verses 1-4.  1 Kings is in the Old Testament.  It goes 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles…

David knows he is about to die.  He has lived a long time.  He was king of Israel for 40 years.  He has been there, killed that and now his son, Solomon, is the king and David wants to give him some last advice.  He wants him to be a good king.  He wants him to live a good life.  But ultimately David wants Solomon to live a life that is pleasing to God because David knows BOOCOD, right?  He knows there are benefits of obedience and consequences of disobedience and he wants his son to do well in every aspect of his life.

Let’s read his last words and his advice to his son from 1 Kings 2:1-4, a passage I thought was appropriate for Father’s Day.

When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son.  ² “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, ³ and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go ⁴ and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’

I hope my last words are good, solid advice.  Wouldn’t you hate to have your last recorded words be something dumb?  John Sedgwick was a Union Army general who was killed in 1864 by a rebel sharpshooter.  Sedgwick’s famous last words were, “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist…”

No, Solomon gets some great advice from a loving father.  It is advice from one man to another but can and should be taken and applied to everyone’s life, male or female.  Let’s look closer at what he was really saying. One of the reasons I think David had read the scripture about Joshua is how he starts off.  He says he is going the way of all the earth which is exactly what Joshua said when he gave his last words to the leaders of Israel in Joshua 23:14.

What does it mean to go the way of all the earth?  He is going to die.  Everything dies.  All people die.  All living beings die.  Your car is going to die.  Your watch, your garden, your job, the very earth we live in and on is one day going to die.  The important thing is how you live because everything dies.  Not everyone truly lives.  David wanted Solomon to really live like all good fathers want for their sons.

John 10:10 tells us that God wants us to live an abundant life and we can when we have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  That relationship will last forever.  Everything else will one day die, rust, mold, be forgotten, turn to dust and go the way of all the earth.  That is God’s plan.  That’s His way and as painful as it is for those left behind when a loved one dies, it’s the perfect plan.

David knew that the life of the king was going to be difficult for Solomon.  It is difficult for everybody.  I say all the time that if we knew what everybody was going through, everybody would be at the top of our prayer list.  David knew it was going to be hard and he knew the people would be watching Solomon to see what decisions he would make and how he would handle the difficulties and the problems that came up so look at what he tells him to do first.  “Be strong.”

Just like God told Joshua – be strong.  Let me ask you a question.  Can you fake being strong?  Sure you can, at least for a little while and if people don’t look too hard.  But people are going to look.  They look especially at Christians who say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” and “God is my strength.  He lifts me up on wings like eagles.”  They rightfully want to know if you mean what you say or if you are just faking it.

Nothing hurts the cause of Christ more than somebody who one day says that God is the source of their strength and the next day falls to pieces.  Remember the story of Paul and Silas in the jail in Acts 16?  They had been preaching the Gospel and made some people mad so the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten.  The jailer then put them in stocks.  They were chained and hurting, miserable, bloody, and had every reason to be angry and crying and complaining.  Is that what they were doing?  No.  What were they doing?  They were praying and singing hymns to God.  And what were the other prisoners doing?  They were listening.

It’s the same with you today.  People are watching you.  People are listening.  They are reading what you put on social media.  They are watching where you are going and how you live your life so BE STRONG.  Be strong because people are watching how you react to your problems.  They are listening to what you say as you battle cancer.  They are watching you as you deal with jerk bosses.  They are watching you make those financial choices.  They are watching you choose a mate, buy a car or even tip the waitress at Dos Chiles.  Don’t think they aren’t watching.

If you call the name of Jesus or claim to be a child of God then for your sake and for the sake of the Kingdom, be strong!   A young man was brought to Napoléon Bonaparte as a thief and a liar.  Napoléon asked him what his name was and the young man said it was, coincidently, also Bonaparte.  Napoléon got angry and said, “Young man you better change your ways or change your name!”

As someone who claims to have the supernatural power of Almighty God and the Holy Spirit living inside of you, you better be strong.  You represent Almighty God and the precious name of Jesus.  When difficulties come and people are watching, be strong.

Now look at the end of verse 2 to see what David tells Solomon next.  “Show yourself a man.”  Sounds like something John Wayne would say, doesn’t it?  “Show yourself a man, pilgrim.”  Is David telling Solomon to dress and look in a way that nobody would mistake him for a woman?  No. I think that’s pretty good advice if your son grows up wanting to be called Kaitlynn but it’s not what David meant.  David is talking about Solomon’s character.  He is talking about being who he is…when nobody is watching.

David is saying to Solomon, “You are physically a man.  Be a man spiritually.  Be who you really are all the time, even when nobody sees.”  That is character.  Webster says character is, “the attributes or features that make up and distinguish an individual.”  It is who you really are. You can fake being a man.  You can fake being strong but who you really are; the essence of your being and what you are really made of are your character.

John Wooden said, “Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”  I read that a good way to truly see someone’s character is to notice what makes them laugh, what makes them angry and what makes them cry.

It’s time some of us, both men and women, started showing ourselves to be men.  What I mean by that is that we need to stop crying about whether we need more or less gun control to stop a massacre or what flag so and so is flying and start crying about the sin that is behind the motives that cause people to act in such a way.  Are we crying about our wasted responsibility to tell others about what a relationship with Jesus has meant in our lives or are we just sad about what rights of ours are going to be taken away?

I learned last Sunday morning about the horror in Orlando from Brian Amerman.  I watched as he was physically moved and grieved over not just the loss of life but of the loss of opportunities to share Jesus with all those who were killed at that nightclub.  It pained him, I could tell, that no one will ever be able to share with them the Good News of how Jesus lived and died and was raised again to show us grace that we can live with Him in Heaven for eternity.

Showing yourself to be a man of character means to laugh at what makes God laugh, to be angry at what makes God angry and to cry at what makes God cry…even when nobody is watching.  Calvin Coolidge said, “We do not need more knowledge, we need more character!”  D.L. Moody said, “Character is what you are in the dark.”  Show yourself to be a man…even in the dark.

Now, don’t you hate it when someone gives you advice but they don’t tell you how to do it?  True story.  I was on the golf team in high school and our golf coach was really just a low-level football coach who got nominated to babysit us.  He didn’t know anything about golf.  He just had the least seniority of the coaches so he was now the golf coach.

I remember I was about to tee off one day and Coach Ling came over to me and said, “Uh, Blair, you need to hit it straighter and farther.”  Then he walked off.  Thanks, coach.  David was not that way with Solomon.  He told him what to do.  He needed to be strong because everybody is watching but also to be a man even when they aren’t.  Then he told him exactly how to do it.

Look at verse 3.  “Observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses.”

He has told him to be strong because people are watching.  Be a man even when they are not watching and now he tells him to be obedient because God is watching.  Now, you would think a father telling his son to be a man and to be strong would say something about being tough and not letting people get anything over on you.  Don’t let ‘em see you cry or sweat or show fear.  But that is not what David tells Solomon.

He tells him to, above all, be obedient.  Be obedient, not just to the big things like “Don’t commit murder” or “Do not covet your neighbor’s wife” as it says in the 10 Commandments but also to the smaller things like tithing as it talks about in Deuteronomy 14 or what not to eat like it talks about in Leviticus 11.

Now, remember who this advice is coming from.  Can you imagine Solomon getting advice from David that included “Don’t covet your neighbor’s wife” and “Don’t murder”?  “Uh, gee, Dad, like you did with my mom, Bathsheba, and her first husband Uriah?”

Do you ever have a hard time taking advice from someone who appears to be a hypocrite or doesn’t know what they are talking about?  Of course you do.  You don’t take dieting advice from a fat guy.  You don’t take a stock market tip from a homeless person.  You don’t take golfing tips from a football coach but when someone has made a mistake and paid the most awful price for it, you listen.

You listen when an alcoholic says, “Don’t ever take that first sip.”  You take it to heart when you visit your friend in the hospital who tells you not to text and drive.  You listen when somebody laying on their back on the sidewalk says, “Don’t step on that patch of ice.”  They have made that mistake and it cost them dearly and because they care for you, they don’t want you to make the same mistake.

That’s what David is telling his son, Solomon.  “Don’t do what I did.  Be obedient to all the laws, the rules and the commands because they are there for a reason.”  David encourages Solomon to “Walk in His ways.”  Walk in God’s ways.  How do we walk in God’s ways?  Picture a little boy walking behind his father through the snow and the little boy is walking in the same footprints that his father made.  He is going the same way, doing the same thing.  He has his eyes on his father and watching what he does and how he does it.

We need to be following in the footsteps of Jesus, watching what He did in scripture and emulating that.  How did He treat people who mistreated Him?  What did He say about forgiveness?  What was His prayer-life like?  For us at Christ Fellowship that means making disciples.  It means learning from Jesus and then teaching and encouraging others with what we have learned.

In the old hymn, “Footprints Of Jesus” it starts out, “Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling,
Come, follow Me!
And we see where Thy footprints falling
Lead us to Thee.”  Then one of the verses says, “If they lead through the temple holy,
Preaching the Word;
Or in homes of the poor and lowly,
Serving the Lord.”

Lord, we will go wherever you want us to go.  We will do what you want us to do and we will say what you want us to say.  Father, we ask for your protection and provision as we do these things that we might honor you and bring glory only to you and your Kingdom.  God, we can’t do any of this without you but we know we can do all things through you.

If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, then today is the day of salvation.  Today is the day you ask God for forgiveness of your sin and you repent – or turn away from -  that sin.  By doing that and believing that Jesus died on the cross for you as the sacrifice for your sins and that He rose again on the third day, you can have eternal life with Him in Heaven.  It’s the only way.  Do that right now.

Invitation / Prayer

Tonight we will see why we should follow David’s advice to his son and what it means to really prosper as it says in verse 3.  See ya at 6 pm!

“What Should We Do?” – Part 3 – 2 Chron. 7:11-22

When you hear the word “revival”, what do you think of?  One of Webster’s definitions is “an often highly emotional evangelistic meeting or series of meetings.”  Maybe you think of a week-long or maybe even a two-weeks-long meeting at the church where a guest preacher would come and a guest musician would be there and you would eat watermelon in the parking lot afterwards and some of the ladies would cook for the preacher and families might even let him stay at their house and when it was all over, probably everybody was glad it was done. 

Was the church revived afterward?  Was there true revival or was that just what was printed on the bulletins?  Well, it depends.  I think most of the time there was true revival.  The church may have fallen back asleep the next month but at least for a while, most of the time there was revival.  But I like another one of Webster’s definitions of the word.  He says revival can also mean a “restoration of force, validity, or effect.”

I think I would be more interested in something like that for our church, wouldn’t you?  I think I would be more interested in something like that for our county and for our country.  I want a restoration of force, validity and effect for our church, our community and our country for the sake of the Kingdom of God and I would imagine that everybody here wants that too. 

I bet every Christian church in our nation would say they want to see revival like that in our country. In fact, I bet the majority of even non-Christians would say they would like to see a moral revival in our country.  So, why doesn’t it happen?  Why is our country falling deeper and deeper into a sin-rich quagmire; this quicksand of pride and greed and violence that chokes the branches trying to abide in the vine?

I remember when I was a little kid and Christmas was coming up in the next month or so and my sisters and I were, of course, trying to figure out what gifts we wanted.  One evening at dinner, my dad asked all of us kids if we wanted this certain kind of stereo for Christmas.  I’m sure Sears had them on sale or something so he asked us if that would be something we wanted.

We all three said that it was but his response disappointed me.  He said if that is what we wanted, would we be willing to pay for it?  He would give us permission to buy it if we really wanted it.  My two sisters said they would use their own money but I didn’t want it that bad.  I’m just a little kid and money was scarce and anyway, a stereo was something you had to use indoors and I wasn’t really into that.  So, I said “no.”

So, that was the last I heard of the stereos until Christmas morning when we went into the living room and under the tree there were two huge boxes and a few smaller boxes as well.  I went running over to the big boxes and one was marked “Suzy” and the other was marked “Sally”.  No big box for Todd.  No stereo for Todd.  At first I was disappointed but I got some cool other stuff and it didn’t bother me.  Do you know why?  I didn’t want a stereo bad enough.  It wasn’t a priority and I was just fine with my other stuff.

My parents knew that and that is why they asked if we wanted it bad enough to pay the price.  They wound up buying those two stereos but they wanted to know…how bad we wanted them.  Maybe you see where I’m going with this.  Some of you may still think I’m talking about stereos but actually I am trying to answer the question about why our country, our county and our church doesn’t see revival; why we don’t see a restoration of God’s force, why we don’t see a restoration of biblical validity and a restoration of the life-changing effect of the Holy Spirit.

We simply don’t want it bad enough.

All through the Bible, God makes us promises.  Some are conditional – if you do this, then I’ll do that – some are unconditional.  No matter what, God will be with us, for instance.  That ought to scare some of us to death thinking about God always being with us, but He is no matter what.  Some promises are pretty easy to claim.  If you want wisdom, James tells us that all you have to do is ask.  It’s that simple.  But some are more difficult. 

Wouldn’t it be nice for our country to undergo spiritual healing?  Wouldn’t it be nice for our county to undergo spiritual healing?  Wouldn’t it be nice for our church to undergo spiritual healing?  God tells us how to do it but I’ll warn you that it’s not easy.  How bad do you want it?

How bad do you want it for our church?  How bad do you want it for your kids and grandkids?  Turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 7 and let’s see what conditions we have to meet to see healing and revival.  Let’s see what God says we have to do before He does the rest.  2 Chronicles is in the Old Testament.  It goes, 1^st and 2^nd Kings, 1^st and 2^nd Chronicles, then Ezra and Nehemiah.

The setting is a time of peace, prosperity and celebration for the Hebrew people.  King Solomon has finished building a magnificent temple plus his own house to live in and everything else he wanted to do and so they have a big party to celebrate God’s goodness and blessings.  Solomon prays a long but very sincere prayer to God.  By the way, if you look at the prayer written down in the previous chapter you will see that he prayed fervently, specifically and expectantly.  Evidently he had read my sermon from last week so that’s good.

Let’s read 2 Chronicles 7:11-22 to see God’s response to Solomon’s prayer.

When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, ¹² the Lord appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.  ¹³ “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, ¹⁴ 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 I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. ¹⁵ Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. ¹⁶ I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.  ¹⁷ “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, ¹⁸ I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.’  ¹⁹ “But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, ²⁰ then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. ²¹ This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ ²² People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’”


Now this passage practically screams “BOOCOD” doesn’t it?  Most of you know what I mean by BOOCOD.  There are “benefits of obedience and consequences of disobedience.”  We know that and God knows that.  Before we really get into the heart of this passage, which is verse 14, I want to point something out in verse 13.  Because God knows that there are consequences of disobedience and He also knows we are going to be disobedient, He lays out what He is going to do.  Do you see it?


“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague…”  God says He is going to do these things just as sure as you’re sitting there if and when we are disobedient.  He says when it gets really bad and you don’t want to live like that anymore or you don’t want your kids and grandkids to live like that anymore, here is what you do…and he starts in with verse 14.


Verse 14 says, “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 I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  Here is the answer.  This is the solution for when you want God to relent and to save, this is what you do.


Have you ever seen college wrestling or even this MMA kinda stuff where one guy has the other guy in some kind of extreme hold that can’t be broken?  What does the guy do when he can’t stand it anymore?  He taps out.  He slaps the floor or his shoulder or whatever and the ref stops the fight.  When we were kids we called it “saying uncle”.  We have had enough and we need relief.  God is saying here that when you are ready to quit trying to do it all yourself and you realize that you are powerless to save yourself or anybody else, you can tap out by following what He says here.  Let’s look at it closer.


“if my people, who are called by my name” He is talking to what we would call Christians today.  This was addressed to the Hebrew people; the children of Israel but the principal is the same for us today.  God says in 1 Peter 4:17, “For it is time for judgment to begin with God's household.”  We can’t expect unbelievers to humble themselves and pray.  That’s our job.  Unbelievers are gonna do what unbelievers are gonna do.  They don’t realize, nor will they ever, without the Holy Spirit, that they are incapable of healing themselves.  They don’t know they are in an unbreakable wrestling hold.  They feel just fine.  Don’t expect them to tap out.


He is talking to the believers in this world – the church – and it is our responsibility to lead the way and God now shows us how we, as the church, are going to have to change.  Look at what He says next.  “If my people will humble themselves…”  We have to humble ourselves.  Who is He talking to here?  Is He talking to you?  It is a rare person who knows and will admit that he needs to be humbled.  This is a statement we all say a hearty “Amen” to because we think He is talking to others but not us.  “I’m not proud.  Look at me.  I’m so humble.  I’m not proud.”


I called my Uncle Bill this week as I was preparing for this sermon to ask him some questions about revival.  He has been an evangelist way longer than I have been alive and he has been there, preached that in revivals all over the country.  I asked him why we don’t see revivals break out anymore; true revivals, not just revival meetings and he immediately said that people aren’t humble enough to see revival.  He said people nowadays are too prosperous to be humble.  They won’t be humble until they are desperate.  It’s just human nature.


I thought it was funny that I had not told him what passage I was preaching on today but in the conversation he said that not many preachers preach on 2 Chronicles 7:14 anymore because it talks about having to humble yourself and not many people are willing to really do that.  When I told him that was my text for today he said, “Well, bless your heart.  Your people may not appreciate you for it but it’s the only way.”


So, how do we humble ourselves?  Well, you don’t have to if you don’t want to.  That’s good.  You can just wait for God to do it but I don’t recommend that.  No, the way to truly humble ourselves is to quit comparing ourselves to each other or to the other churches or to especially unbelievers.  We look pretty good compared to some of those and it’s hard to be humble like that.  No, compare yourself to what the Word says.  Compare yourself to God’s will and what He has told us we should be in the Bible and try NOT to be humble.


James calls God’s Word a mirror. The mirror helps us evaluate ourselves. Once you look at a mirror, you can decide if you need to make any changes before you leave for the day. I don’t know about you but when I look in the mirror first thing in the morning, let’s just say it’s not my proud moment of the day.  The Bible helps us do that, too.  It’s hard to be proud when we see what God expects of us as people who are called by His name.


It was John Riskin who said, "I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own power, or hesitation in speaking his opinion. But really great men have a ... feeling that the greatness is not in them but through them; that they could not do or be anything else than God made them."


Did you hear about the minister who said he had a wonderful sermon on humility but was waiting for a large crowd before preaching it?


It’s time, for the sake of our church and for the sake of our country and for our kids and grandkids to humble ourselves – the word means to bend the knee or make low.  It’s time to admit to God that we are nothing and can do nothing without His grace, mercy and power.  In John 15:5 says, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”   Revival and healing won’t happen until we humbly acknowledge Jesus as not just our Savior, but also our Lord.


Look now at the other conditions God gives us for healing and revival.  After we humble ourselves, we are to pray.  You don’t pray and then humble yourself because true prayer can only be done humbly.  How can you be proud and have a conversation with the Creator of the universe, the Alpha and Omega, the great I AM?  Proud prayer is wrong prayer.  In fact, proud prayer is NOT prayer. 


We talked last week about what makes prayer powerful and it always involves praying earnestly and without ceasing and praying humbly expecting God to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine. (Eph. 3:20) True revival, or true healing is only going to come when we humble ourselves and pray like that seeking His face.  What does it mean to seek His face?  What do you think?


My dogs are used to getting a couple dog biscuits every evening as a treat.  We have done it for years and how often do you think they forget about those treats?  NEVER!  I do sometimes but they never do.  Sometimes I will be watching TV or reading in my chair and you know how it feels when you just know you are being watched?


I’ll look out the corner of my eye and see Sara just boring a hole in me with her eyes.  I look at the clock and I know what she wants.  All I have to do is look at her and she knows it’s time.  She gets so excited when I look at her because she knows I can’t deny her her evening treat.  She doesn’t whine or bark or jump on me.  All she has to do is stare at me and wait for me to look at her but when I do…oh happy day!


We need to seek God’s face like that.  We need to understand that we can’t do it ourselves.  We aren’t smart enough or good enough or anything enough to make it happen.  Seek God’s face.  What does He want?  What is He like?  Search the scriptures.  Find out.  Ask Him.  Seek His face in prayer and Bible study here at church and at home.  Don’t say you want revival or healing or any kind of positive change until you spend your days and nights seeking God’s face.


Lastly, we have to turn from our wicked ways.  What ways is He talking about?  We aren’t wicked, are we?  Again, too often when we ask ourselves that question we compare ourselves to somebody else to define wickedness and that not how we define it.  1 John 5:17 says that all wrongdoing is sin.  Anything that displeases God is sin.  It is wicked and we need to repent or turn away from it.


I talk with people every now and then who have hit rock bottom.  They have nothing.  They are nothing.  Everything in their life seems to be horrible.  But when I suggest that they need to do this or that because that is what the Bible says then they aren’t willing to do that just yet.  They don’t want to quit a habit or a person and they want to continue doing what they are doing but they want God to help them.


I’m sorry but it doesn’t work that way.  You can’t expect God to bless you, heal you, bring revival, show His grace and mercy or anything else until you are willing to completely turn from your wicked ways.  Talk is cheap but until you turn away and stop doing what you are not supposed to do and start doing what you are supposed to do then you haven’t hit rock bottom and things will get even worse.


But when we do all of that – and here’s the good news – when we do all of that – when we humble ourselves and pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways then it says that He will hear from Heaven, meaning He will see that we mean it and understand that we can’t do it.  We rely fully on Him.  He will hear from heaven and forgive our sin.


Forgiveness only comes with repentance.  True repentance only comes when we, as Christians, turn away from our evil ways that displease God with plans to never do them again.  Tell me how it feels to be forgiven of something.  What words would you use to describe how you feel when God or maybe somebody else forgives you of something you have done wrong.  Relief, gratitude, peace, joy?


Don’t you want that for your life?  Don’t you want that for your kids and grandkids?  Don’t you want a healed land for them?  God promises that if we will do our part to humble ourselves and pray and seek His face as we turn from our wicked ways then He will do His part to forgive and heal and bring revival.  Let’s do that right now!