Healing the land

Introduction and hook

2 Chronicles 7:11–22 NIV

11 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.’ ”

Pray.

Hook: First Methodist Conroe....I have been stalking you. I got to secret shop you before you really knew who i was. For about 4 weeks I came anonymously and worshipped.

You are loving. Committed. Welcoming. I am grateful for you already.

Heard a story this week from someone joining our church....

This is our calling right now in this tough season of life and in the church. 2 Chronicles will challenge us to consider how we are to live.

Let’s jump in with open hearts. Can I challenge you? A lot of times we come into this place with our minds made up about God, about who we are, about all our convictions with the way things are or should be, and we miss a word that God might have for us.

Background of a king

So Daniel assigned for me to preach on 20 percent of the bible this morning.....

Let’s get caught up! Have you been reading? By know you have moved from the Garden all the way into the promised land. It is a part of this messy rescue of redemption.

Show picture.

Noah: 1 man

Abraham: 1 family

Moses: one nation

David: kingdom

The Church, through Christ: All people

Expanding restoration through covenants.

This is the story about the people of God becoming the people and the kingdom of Israel.

They wander in the desert learning what it means to trust Yahweh. Moses brings them to the cusp of the land that was promised to them. Joshua is the one who will lead them into the land driving out the enemies of God’s people.

Joshua is a book of conquest and then a book of accounting.

Judges is a train wreck. They are in the promised land but the people are a conglomerate of tribes. The only time they share anything in common is in worship of Yahweh at the Temple and when they need to defend themselves. They fight and bicker. the overtime move away from God’s covenant. forgetting their history, ceasing to listen, and not obeying. After a while they suffer, call out to God and then God rescues.

Picture of cycle.

12 judges. By the end, the last chapters zoom in for a close illustration of just how bad things can be.

Judges is making the case for a king.

Next you have Ruth, little off shoot story. An OT narrative of redemption.

Then the time of the Kings. 1 and 2nd Samuel tells the stories of Samuel the priest, Saul, David, and Solomon.

Saul: Bad

David: Best (but broken as well)

Solomon: Great until he wasnt

All of the rest of the kings with few exception and bad.

Summary:

Story of Kings: They want a King like the other nations…they think they need a king to lead and protect.

God was always supposed to be that.

God gives them a king of their choice, Saul.

Doesent work.

God choses..... David. He is the great King that is promised and God promises to bless the nation through his leadership and his dynasty/family line (See matthew Genealogy)

Now, Solomon gets to build the Temple and that he does. David wanted to, but in 2nd Samuel 7, God puts the smack down because David gets a little arrogant thinking he is the one that dictates the presence of God with the people. God says....

2 Samuel 7:11–13 NIV

11 and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies. “ ‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

Goosebumps text here.

Now Solomon has built the temple and there is a dedication where, by the way God reminds Solomon that God chose it....

2 Chronicles 7:12 NIV

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.

Side note: We do not build the church. We do not dictate where God’s Spirit will reside. God is not held captive to our plans and schemes, votes, decisions, etc.

I want us to drill down on this part here:

2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV

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.

What we have here in this passage is a strong warning from God to remain faithful to their relationship and covenant they have made with God. What is fascinating is it is both warning and explanation.

See the Chronicler, is that a word? Is writing later on, likely to present the case of how exile came upon God’s people....in order to remind them of the hope they have of God’s restoration.

Essentially, the Chronicler is saying when we disobeyed, when we were unfaithful…God sent plagues, allowed oppressors to rise up against us.

Divine Judgment

The old testament presents a predicament for us modern hearers because we are faced with the reality that God does punish the wicked. If we are honest we are comfortable with that as long as we can define the wicked. I will affirm that God does move against those that disobey. As I read scripture it is affirmed that God will aggressively oppose God’s own people when they stray. And I suspect many today might want me to alleviate that stress and probably define the wicked in our day.

My conviction is we know much of what we stand against. And very little for what we stand for. We can find that in the denominational debate. We can find that in our political cycle. We can find that in our COVID Years.

Divine Judgment, yes. But it is a mystery to me how, when, and to what effect. This passage does not alleviate that stress.

But do you know what it does do?

It speaks a word of clarity on identity/relationship, it gives a word of clarity of God’s expectations, and it delivers the promise from God found in this obedience.

“You are called by my name.”

You have been called by my name. You are intricately linked to the creator of the universe. This is covenantal language showing commitment to you. But it is the very state of things that exists before anything is asked of you. Meaning our very ability to find humility, to walk in obedience, all of it is required AND possible because you belong to him. Not simple enough. You are loved.

I believe it is difficult for us to love God and love people, because when you dig down deep enough, we do not believe we are loved.

illustration. Sadie-dog? premarital counseling?

“Humble themselves”

Then there is the call for humility.

G. K. Chesterton was invited by a London paper in the early 1900s to submit an essay in response to the question, “What’s wrong with the world?” He humorously, and wisely, responded with a simple four-word essay: “Dear sirs, I am.”

Humility is a place of freedom knowing that you do not see the full picture of God and the full picture of yourself.

When we spend all of our time looking down on others, we cannot see what is above. Our perspective is warped.

Snow storm at APL example.

This is the pharisee in the temple: “Thank you that you did not make me like them.

The tax collector: Have mercy on me, a sinner.

Yall, i am going to move from preaching to meddling here.

church:, this is not about being right or abandoning your convictions. The tax collector was most assuredly living a life that was out of step of what God desires. The tax collector most assuredly had terrible theology, was not loving neighbor, was probably a hot mess from top to bottom. The pharisee knew the bible, could recite the full stipulations of every covenantal agreement.

This is not about abandoning what is right or self- deprecation. This is about putting ourself in a place that God can fill.

The proud has no room for God. The humble is a vessel prime for divine action.

“Pray and seek my face”

The final call is for the people to pray and seek the face of God.

David Thomas is someone who has spent the last 10-15 years studying revival and specifically its connection to a special kind of prayer. He calls it travailing prayer.

“a kind of spiritual posture found among some who were the catalytic core—a spirit of urgency and audacity, an attitude of brokenness and desperation, a manner of prayer that could be daring and agonizing. These friends in the Hebrides called it travailing prayer, like the Holy Spirit groaning through them, they said, like a woman travailing in labor, like Paul in Galatians 4:19travailing “as if in the pangs of childbirth that Christ might be formed in you.”

It is time for us to contend, not just bring our shot gun list of needs to God, but to earnestly seek God’s face.

Your church is providing opportunities to do that corporately. Scripture reading. Life groups of community. Prayer emphasis. Prayer and worship night, this thursday. We should have more people at prayer and worship then we do at town halls.

What is at stake?

“I will forgive your sin and heal your land”

2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV

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.

The word here is for heal can be restore. It is used in the Old Testament to mean multiple things. In 1 Kings, Elijah calls people together to repair the broken altar. In Genesis, God heals infirmities so that women could have children again.

The fact is that there is physical brokenness and spiritual wounds. There is a need for rebuilding and healing. And this is God’s promise to Israel.

This is God’s promise to us. If we will turn from our own deceitful ways, if we will humble ourselves and if we will seek God’s face then God will bring healing and restoration. Revival comes on the other side of healing. Church we are not asking to survive. We are not asking to hold on to the status quo. God is not interested in our pursuit of comfort.

Chronicles is written on the other side of the people of Israel turning away from this promise. Solomon turns away from God and pursues status grabbing and power-hungry endeavors. The people of Israel would be ripped in two with political strife, becoming two kingdoms both rife with struggle and disobedience. Eventually they will be taken away into exiles. This old testament book is written on the other side of that to present this history as a promise that God will still restore. And God does....with the promised one Jesus Christ.

The difference now is that Christ’s presence means that healing is here and not just a future promise. And Christ’s presence gives us the very real ability to walk humbly, to forgive, to turn from wickedness, and to Seek the face of God.