REVIVE US LORD
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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.
Spiritual progress begins when we see ourselves as God sees us.
It’s one thing when a friend says, “This is what you look like.”
It’s another thing for God to utter those words.
We can sometimes fool even our closest friends, but it’s impossible to fool the God.
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
He knows what we say behind closed doors, the secret thoughts no one else can hear, the hidden motives, the buried ambition, and all the twists and turns of our sinful nature.
He doesn’t have to uncover our thoughts; he already knows them.
This is a sermon about revival.
Let’s start with the word itself.
You revive something when you bring it back to life.
You can’t revive something that has never been alive in the first place.
That’s why revival is different from evangelism.
Evangelism is preaching the gospel to the lost that they might be saved.
Revival awakens the saved from a state of spiritual slumber.
When God sends revival, the church wakes up.
Or to give a more formal definition, revival is the sovereign act of God, whereby he calls his sleeping body, the church to repentance, faith, and new obedience to him.
Leading up to these verses scripture the Lord lays out certain hard times that might come to the people of God. And not just to Isreal, but any nation that may find themselves in this spiritual condition.
There might be a drought or a plague of locusts or an outbreak of disease in the land, covid 19.
1 Kings 8 adds other times, such a crushing military defeat, or famine or blight or cities under siege by the enemy, or being sent into captivity.
This verse is meant for God’s people whenever there is trouble in the land.
The promise always applies, but in desperate times we need to pay close attention to verses like this.
I. The Subjects of Revival
“If my people, who are called by my name” (v. 14a).
These two phrases tell us this verse is limited to those who know the Lord.
Remember 2 Chronicles 7:14 was not written to the Democrats or the Republicans.
This is not a blanket invitation that applies to anyone, anywhere, at any time, oh no.
God limits this invitation to those who are “his people.” This is not, for instance, a verse that applies to the Mormons, Jehovah Witness are any religion that denies that Jesus is not God.
Nor does it apply to mankind in general.
This promise applies to those who know Jesus and to no one else.
To be called by the name of the Lord means you have called upon the name of the Lord to be saved.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
II. The Conditions for Revival
Shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways;
What exactly is humility?
Seeing my true condition before God.
2: Prayer
What sort of prayer is the Lord talking about?
It is the sincere prayer of a person who realizes his true condition.
When I understand everything I have comes as a gift from God, my prayers will be filled with gratitude, love and praise.
I will cry out to God, confessing how far short I fall of his divine standards.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
3: Seeking God’s Face
The phrase “seek my face” is a familiar one in the Old Testament.
It has to do with the direction of my life.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
To seek God’s face is to hunger for a closer walk with him. Many of us know little of this because we fill our stomachs with spiritual junk food that never satisfies but keeps us from seeking nutritious food.
The question is, what are you hungry for right now?
Those who are hungry to know God seek one thing; those who are hungry for a career seek something else.
What you are hungry for determines what you seek.
4: Turning from our Wicked Ways
At some point things have to change.
We must repent. To repent means you turn from your wicked ways.
You used to cheat on your wife, but now you don’t. You used to be lazy, but now you aren’t.
You used to fill your mind with bitterness, but now you don’t.
Once you were angry most of the day, but now you have turned away from anger.
Once you were sloppy on the job when the boss wasn’t watching, but not anymore.
Once you lived in lust for that which God has forbidden you to have, but not anymore.
Once you lived to party on the weekends, but that life is part of your past.
Whatever your wicked ways are, revival means turning from those ways to the ways that Please God.
It means a definite break with the past and a deliberate change of direction.
If you think about it, these four conditions form a kind of progression:
You will never pray with any fervency until you see your true condition before God.
You will never seek God’s face until you begin to get serious about prayer.
You will never turn from your wicked ways until God becomes all-important in your life.
Humility leads to prayer.
Prayer leads to seeking God’s face.
Seeking God’s face leads to turning from our wicked ways.
III. The Results of Revival
“Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land”.
We need to think carefully about this because it’s easy to turn 2 Chronicles 7:14 into a formula for revival.
Certainly the verse lays out a plan for us to follow.
The word “then” encourages us to believe our crying to God will never be in vain.
Our tears are not in vain.
Our prayers are not in vain.
Our burden is not in vain.
Our sadness is not in vain.
Our desperation is not in vain.
When we are so dissatisfied with the status quo that we cry out to God for help, the answer will indeed come from heaven and things will begin to change.
We must not limit God as to the how and the when.
He is still the sovereign God who does whatever pleases him.
But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
We must not dictate to the Lord about how the answer from heaven will come.
He will answer in his own time, in his own way, according to his own will.
But we have this assurance:
He will hear.
He will forgive.
He will heal.
Start by Looking in the Mirror
So where does revival begin? The answer is always the same.
It begins with you and it begins with me.
It’s one thing to talk about what stands between our nation and revival or between my church and revival.
It’s always easier to confess someone else’s sins.
Ask God what stands between you and a new experience of his power and blessing.
If you ask in sincerity, God will surely answer.
The call of Christ is always personal. He calls us one by one to follow him.