Proper Posture of Prayer

Introduction

Introduce Self

Dismiss Children

Connection and celebration moment: Experience Liberty 3 family units and Next Ssteps 4-6 family units

We are continuing in our series “if my people: a call to prayer” today by taking a look at the verse and the context surrounding it .

Have you ever heard a bible verse used out of context?

Maybe something like

Is 40:31 “31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings as eagles; They shall run, and not be weary; And they shall walk, and not faint.”

Being used to tell you that your going to get eagles wings when you wait on God so you can fly?

Or,

Phil 4:13 “13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Being told to you so that you can get one more rep in the gym or one more mile on the treadmill.

These are some lighthearted and funny examples. there are some more serrious ones.

James 2:26 “26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

People misuse this one to tell people they hve to work for their salvation.

To clear that up…The body without the spirit is deaad but there is stll a body. Faith in Jesus for salvation can still exist and you not do anything for Him. I believe this means you hve a rudementarry understanding of Jesus and don’t have a personal relationship with Him.

Eph 2:8-9 “8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Paul and James are not contradiccting one another, they are complimenting.

Paul is speaking about your salvation and eeterrnal life. James is telling you that if you believe as you say you do there will be fruit in your life to reflect it.

Now how did we get the proper understanding of that verse and the others?

Context. We have to take scripture in its proper context.

When we do that we can understand it and God better.

Today we are going to look at a verse that has been taken out of context. I”m going tspend a good amount of time in the beginning laying the foundation for it so we go into the proper understanding with a full head of steam.

Look with me at the passage and let’s dive in

2 Chronicles 7:12-22 “12 And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. 13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; 14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 15 Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. 16 For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. 17 And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments; 18 Then will I stablish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel. 19 But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; 20 Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations. 21 And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and unto this house? 22 And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.”

Alright…where are we?

We are in Isreal during the reign of Solomon. This is King David’s son. So the third king of Israel. They have just finished building the first temple known as Solomons temple. A grandious structure that replaces thee tabernacle a God’s place on Earth to be with his people.

After a day of prayer and sacrifice to cconsecreate the temple, God appears to Solomon and says what we saw here.

God is telling Solomon if I punish Israel and they humble themselves before me, seek me, and repent, or stop doing the wrong things they are doing, I’ll hear them, stop all the badd stuff happening, and take care of them. He has chosen this house as his resting place.

If Solomon obeys God He will rule well but if he turns from God, The Lord will destroy the temple, remove Israel from the land, and make it so others that look upon the ruins know who the God of Israel is and what he has done to them.

Answer some questions with me: Who is speaking here? God. Who is He talking to? Solomon. Who is He talkign about? Israel. The nation of Israel.

In bible terms he has just made a covenant with Solomon about the ntion of Isrel. He has said if you follow me I’ll take care of you. If you forsake me, I’ll destory you.

This is how God interacted with the Nation of Israel. Through covenants like this.

from the beginning he says “IF you do, then I will.” He even has covenenat with new Testament christians. “If you trust in Jesus as your Savior, I will save you.”

However, this coveneant here, this curse and blessing, this covenant is with the Nation of Israel and Solomon. Neither of which are you and I today.

Nor does this promise rest upon the United States of America.

Now, that’s not to say that if an entire nation were to humbly pursue God with a repentant heart He wouldn’t bless or be with them. However, we cannot, with a proper context apply this passage to the US or any nation other than Israel.

Why is that important? 1. To have the right theology. To help us from believing in what’s known as rreplacement theology. Replacement theology says that the church has now taken the promises and curses frrom Israel and replaced God’s people in covenants like this one. 2. To have the right context. To keep us from using this verse as means to say if Christians would do this we would see our land healed from anything going on in it. This was a call to the nation of Israel for national repentance. Not just a righeous remant. It would take the nation turning. I never say something is impossible because God can do anything howevver know that even if every Christian did this, that is not national repentance as a people. 3. To have the right application. We ccan miss the application to the NT Christian. The Old Testament is there for us to better understand who God is, to see wht God has done, and to apply the principles and truths from the OT, in light of the NT,

That’s what I want us to do today.

I want you to walk away from your time here this morning choosing to apply this properly to your life to humbly pursue God knowing your salvation is seccured and your relationship with Him is a source of strength.

I want you to feel empowered by the truth of scripture. Teenagers, look at me. When I was your age I didn’t understand the Bible becuase…well…ultimately becuse I chose not to figure it out. I was also in a situation where there was over spiritualization and emotionalism determing whether the chruch service was good or not. to everyone, at Liberty when we gather we ask if truth was prccolaimed, was sccripturee properlyy exegeted, were people introduced to the gospel and reminded of it.

When we understand scripture we can claim it’s promises as what it is, the Word of God. When we misunderstand it or don’t understand it, we can claim false promises and get upset when they aren’t fulfilled. We can miss the opportunity to have a better relationship with God.

Illustrate:

Have you ever had a misunderstanding with your spouse? Maybe a miscommunicted expectation?

I just had one this last week.

My wife had mentieond to me a couiple supplements we should get. What I heard was “I’d like to trry this one suppllement.”

So me being the good husband I am, while I’m out and about this last week I grabbed that supplement from Supp life next to Hobby Lobby. When she got home and saw my surprise she said “O you got that.” “Did you try it?” I looked at her and I said “No, I got it becuase you said you wanted it.”

And it was in that moment, I knew…I had misunderstood.

That one was for me. She thought I should try it. Wanna know what it was called? Focus.

She had wanted another one.

While we laughedd about it, times like that can lead to a little frustration if it’s more serioius.

So to keep you from misunderstanding this verse I’ve spend 10 minutes giving you the context and why its important. Now I’d like for you to understand the principle and applcation of the primary verse we re looking at here.

2 Chron 7:14 “14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

We are not the nation of Israel…so we can’t look t this as an application to the nation. However we can see God and know how He interacts with those He calls his and understand the Proper Posture of Prayer.

I’m not going to prescribe you a particular pose to strike as you pray, that would be taking the title out of context.

God deals witht he people of ISrael in the Old Testament as a antion. He deals with new Testament Christians a individuals.

1 Peter 2:9 “9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:”

We are the priesthood, we have a direct relationship with God. We aas individual Cchristians are the holy nation…o fi that’s the case then wht ccan we take from this passage?

I believe we can see three postures to assume when we pray.

Notice first God tells the nation to humble themselves and pray.

What does it mean to humble yourself before God? What does that posture look like?

Well physicalyl speaking I beleive many of us look at kneeling as a posture of humility. WHile I don’t wholly disagree with you I’d like for you to better define this posture as one of submission.

When we kneel before someone we are submitting to them. Not a bad posture but not always done out of humility.

Let me get a volunteer up here. Can I get one boy to come help me?

Sometimes it can be forced. So what does humility looke like?

Neh 8:6 “6 And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.”

Following the reading of the law to the people of Isreal, They stood with lifted hands “Amen, Amen” nwo if you are not familiar witht the word amen it basically means “I agree or yes thats right”

The common posture of prayer was standding with hands lifted out like this. How does this reflect humility.

Notice the posture: My body is fully expoosed I’m not defensive, I’m ready to recieve from God.

Notice my hands, open and lifted awaiting to recieving what God has.

Now that we see this posture of humilty is this how we have to always pray. No.

Assuming the posture of Humility is not about how you physically position yourself, it’s about how you spiritualy position your self.

Apply:

How do you spiritually position yourself with humility?

Notice what is refelcted by this physical posture?

Do this with your heart.

Expose your whole hear to God. Don’t try to hide anything.

OPen your heart to God and recive what He wants to give.

Allow yourself to look up to God spiritually acknowledging His position in your heart, hIs authority, and His love.

When we approach God in prayer we should have

I. A humble posture

The verse continues

2 Chron 7:14 pray, and seek my face

Let’s go bacck to our physical example.

My heart is open, ready to recieve what God has and now my eyes are looking up.

Whle I undertandd you don’t have to look up to “see God” we all understand this right?

We are looking up to the Heavens to us looking towards God. We are acknowledging Him being higher than we re. We are seeing actively engaged in seeking His face.

This must be an intentional act and it’s imprtant.

The Bible says that God is a jealous God and we should have no other Gods before him.

Just like your spouse could be a jealous spouse and want no other spouses or non spouses before them.

Not even spouses, for those fo you that are dating, boyfriends and girlfriends can be just as jealous.

Friends can do the same.

So why is it important for us to be seeking God and pursuing Him?

Illustrate:

Have you ever attended a party you weren’t invited to? Not necessarily crashing it but maybe.

How do you feel in those moments?

Glad to be there, enjoying the ambience and company but you weren’t invited. You may quetion whether they realyl want you there or if they really care. You may find yourself doubting the friendship witht he host i real.

While God isn’t as petty as we can be, there is a difference between attending a party and being invited to one.

When a person happens to stumble into your presence it ccan be great.

But God calls for us to love Him and only Him. If I love Him and only Him then I’m going to be sending Him an invite to every party and game night I host.

I’m going to make sure His name is on the guest list just as much as I would make sure my wife’s name is on the guest list.

Spiritualyyl speaking its the difference between happening to remember to pray and going “O, hey Gopd forgot abotu you today >Hope you don’t mind. Here are a few requests. Let me hve a good one and you ddo the same.”

Apply:

Spiritually pursing God is intentionally going to Him on a daily basis. It’s making Him apart of your life.

It’s having a walk with God that’s doesn’t have Him knocking at the door, He’s already done that. It’s you choosing to leave the door open for Him knowing He is there. It’s you going to His house and knocking.

Are you pursing god with your heart or playing hard to get?

Becuase God already pursued you.

Luke 19:10 “10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Jesus already came to seek you…now its our turn.

II. A Pursuing Posture

then we see the last part of this verse

2 Chron 7:14 “and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Turn from their wicked ways. This is most easily described as repentance. It is doing a 180 degree turn from the thing you arre doing that is in opposition to God.

What does this look like phyically?

We are in this position and we re now going to transition to the position of repentance.

In order to repent yyou must not only accept that you are wrong you must submit to the person that is right.

Physically this where kneeling comes in.

Some may go as far as face down, some just here. Either way that is the first part of this posture.

To submit to God as God.

To acknowlege He is right.

To repent is to also seek forgiveness. We have to acknoeldge He is right.

Two things we say when we are repenting to antoher peron.

“You were right. I was wrong.”

That’s not easy for everyone.

Illustrate:

Frederick William I was a king of Prussia in the early 18th century. Personality-wise, he was described as exacting, frugal and austere. He was known to beat his children when they disappointed him. His eldest son, the future king Frederick William II, along with two friends, attempted to run away to escape his father’s ire. One escaped, but the other was imprisoned, and after a season, executed in front of the son in an attempt to reform the child’s wayward path.

As he lay on his deathbed, the pastor attending him told him he must forgive all his enemies. Immediately he thought of his brother in law, George II of England. “In that case,” he told his wife reluctantly, “write to your brother and tell him I forgive him, but be sure not to do it until after my death.”

Apply:

He was unwilling to repent of his wrongdoing becuase he would be embarrassed or appear weak. The problem with that thinking is it is unbiblical.

We have to be willing to submit ourselves to God’s authority.

then when we submit we have another posture that comes with repentance. Notice this…we get up…and we go. We go live with God and for God. We go and live changed becuase we have been in the presence of God.

III. A Repentant Posture

God has called us, New Testament Cchrsitians to pray. He has not replaced His people Israel with the church. The call to prayer here and promise of healiing is not on the United States.

It is howver on the heart of each person.

If you are here todday and don’t know Jesus as your Savior, that is the purpose of this passage for you.

Humbly pursue Jesus by calling on Him for you to repent and be saved. walk out of here today a new creature in Christ..

Those of us that follow Jesus, have you been neglecting prrayeer? Have you been approaching it without the proper posture? Not how your physical body is positioned but how your heart is positioned.

What would change in your life if you approached God with this type of heart daily?

Christian do ywant to continue living with the relationship you hve with God? Do want it to not grow anymoree? If so, don’t approach God this way.

However, fiy ou are ready yo see your relatioshiip with God flourish and impact your life in a way you’ve never seen before, Go to Him with a Humble, Puruing, and Repentant posture.

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