IF MY PEOPLE

GET A PRAYER FOCUS, allow a burden to generate within your heart during this message… mention during prayer in sermon

Theme: One’s way of life will never rise above the practice of one’s prayer life. (Prayerlessness)

IF MY PEOPLE

II Chronicles 6-7

Danger of highlighting lose focus on other verses, one of my favorite scenes

Solomon had just came to the completion of the Temple to the Lord and in Chapter 6 vs 12 he begins his prayer of dedicating the temple.

Chapter 6:12 ff- Solomon’s prayer of dedication

· In verse 13 he steps up onto a platform, kneels in front of all of Israel, spreads out his hands to heaven and begins to pray…

· If anyone sins against his neighbor, vs 22

· If your people are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you, vs 24

· When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, vs 26

· When there is famine in the land, or pestilence; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, vs 28

· When a foreigner who is not of your people has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name and Your mighty hand; when they pray, vs 32

· When your people go out to the battle against their enemies vs 34

· When they sin against You, and You become angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy vs 36… Will you hear their prayer?

Read II Chronicles 7:1-14

Focus on Glory of the Lord, the sacrifice, and God coming to Solomon in the night.

PRAY

Today’s Outline

1 Group

3 Prerequisites

2 Results

There is hope for America but we must turn to God or she will die. A danger that we fall into… as described in Matthew 24:12 is that due to the abundance of evil, the love of many people will become cold. In other words, the overwhelming evil we see in the world will cause us to perhaps think that we can no longer make a difference. We must not fall into this way of thinking and if we have we must repent. Darkness exist because of the lack of light that is present in this world and the best I can tell, it is the Christian’s responsibility today to shine our light before men so that they may see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven. This brings me to our first point for today…

I. (If my people who are called by My name) Those Who Call Themselves Christians. The Responsibility For The Revival or Renewal Rests Upon Christians

a. Not the liberal media

b. Not government

c. Not the those who are lost in every kind of sin

We love to talk about how horrible the sin of the sinner is, but forgot to consider the fact that the only hope that exist for our nation sits squarely on the shoulders of Christians, the church… IF MY PEOPLE. We should be mourning, weeping, and crying out for the lack of influence that we have had on the workplaces, families, and neighborhoods in which we live. The group that is now, and always has been responsible for the future of our nation is the church of Jesus Christ, and we will soon give account for the influence or lack thereof that we have had.

II. Humility Must Be Self Inflicted (will humble themselves)

If you are questioning today how to humble yourself let me give you a few ideas to consider.

· Wake up each day and realize that the very reason that you were able to wake up that morning was that God saw fit to allow you to do so.

· Each time you come into contact with another person realize that you are no better than they are and that God desired for us to look at each other with greater regard than we do ourselves. Remember that humility does not mean thinking less about yourself, it means thinking about yourself less.(REPEAT)

· Look at everything that is happening around the world and realize that it is only by the mercy of God that you are where you are today.

· Remember that there are nearly 8 billion people in the world and that over a million of them die every single day and that you are not promised tomorrow.

· You were made from the dust and to the dust you shall return

· Get over yourself, Respect your wife, Honor your husband, Protect your children, and Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

· If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves, and pray.

III. Pray Seeking His Face (and pray, and seek my face)

a. We need to pray the prayer that God hears. God hears the prayer that seeks His face. But we’re not seeking the face of God; we’re seeking the hand of God, saying, “O God do something.” But can’t you see that God is doing something? The late pastor Adrian Rogers said, “It’s not that God is so high that few can figure Him out; it is that God has placed Himself at such a level that few of us will get down low enough to see God revealing Himself to us. We can’t see Jesus because we ourselves are too lifted up. Jesus said that those of us who would be greatest would be serving others.

b. I want to share a prayer with you from Billy Graham. I found this entitled Billy Graham’s Prayer For Our Nation; ‘Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable… We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from sin and Set us free. Amen!’

c. What a powerful and timely prayer and it is one that we must begin to pray in our own lives because…

i. The abortionist is not seeking God’s face

ii. The lotteries and casinos are not seeking God’s face

iii. Those abusing tax-payers dollars are not seeking God’s face

iv. Those in the media who are pumping our minds full of garbage and are trying to do away with God altogether are certainly not seeking his face. GOD NEEDS HIS PEOPLE TO PRAY. This brings me to the last responsibility that is required of us by God if we were to see our sins forgiven and our land healed

IV. We Must Turn from our Wicked Ways If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from watching perverted and violent television and movies, wasting time on the internet, their lying, gossiping, prideful, holier than thou, condescending, pessimist, angry, jealous, vindictive, selfish, lazy, and judgmental ways… nice list huh? We need to be real about the condition of our heart. But let’s talk about repentance.

a. Repentance today, ladies and gentlemen, is more than conviction of sin, more than confession of sin, more than sorrow for sin. Repentance is a complete turning, a wholehearted change. Do you think that you can get right with God in one area without getting right in every area? The day you got saved, was not the end of Christ’s work in your life, it was the beginning. If you have given up some sin, or a sinful habit, or perhaps corrected an attitude, or overcome a heart full of anger, Praise the Lord! But He’s not through with you yet. Our prayer as Christians should be for the Holy Spirit to rip through our lives and empty every filthy, dirty, disgusting sin in our life. We need to clean out the closets of our lives. Anyone that has every cleaned something knows one inevitable fact exists that they cannot avoid. You will have to clean it again. Never stop asking God to cleanse you. We should constantly be living in a state of self-examination where we ask God to point out any sin in our life that needs to be dealt with. What’s a sin? Anything that gets in the way of your relationship with God. One of my most consistent prayers regarding my spiritual life is for God to keep me close and to keep me clean… keep me close, keep me clean… then, and only then will our sins be forgiven, and our land healed.

V. The Promise That God Honors (I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.)

a. Don’t tell me it’s too late for America. The God who sent revival on Mount Carmel, to Ninevah, to Jerusalem… that God is alive and well. God would rather pardon than judge. Now, God is angry at our sins, but He is full of compassion and mercy. And God WILL forgive our sins. He will forgive us… if His people humble themselves and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways.

b. He will heal our land. Let’s take a moment to talk about healing.

i. We are hurting. Is there anyone out there that doesn’t want to see people stop hurting?!?!?! The sin of this world negatively affects me, it negatively affects our families, it stalks our children, and it is destroying our communities.

ii. He wants to heal us physically, financially, emotionally, mentally, and last but certainly not least spiritually.

iii. Who says our God can’t rid a nation of cancer or leukemia the way that he removed plagues from the people of Israel. Who says our God can’t provide a plan to save our national economy and help you pay off that debt that’s terrorizing your life. Who says our God can’t bring peace to the person that has been declared imbalanced, depressed, or anxious by earthly physicians. And who would dare to stand today and say that our God cannot turn our hearts back to Him again.

Call to Prayer