“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!