God Is Speaking To The Church

September 28, 2008

Morning Worship

Text: 2 Chronicles 7:14

Subject: Judgment

Title: God is speaking to the Church

This is one of those Sundays where I had a sermon already prepared and another well on the way and the Lord spoke to me on Friday morning during prayer, “Here is where I want you to go on Sunday. I love it when that happens. I mean, I am always confident that I am preaching the message that God wants me to preach but occasionally He will speak directly to me to move in a new direction. So, I started thinking about how I should go about this new sermon subject I had been given, and here is what happened. I sat down on the front pew with my notebook and began to write what the Lord was giving and found that what He was speaking to me was a word of prophecy to the church. I’m going to share that with you right now.

The time of judgment is coming to America and to the world. This financial crisis you re in the middle of is just the beginning. Do not put your trust in the government to protect you and save you from the pending disaster. I will only withhold My judgment for a short time. It will appear that the government has succeeded in preserving the prosperity that you cherish, but it is only a cosmetic fix. The very things the world desires will bring their destruction and the one thing that can save them they cast aside. I Am the Living God and I desire that all men turn to Me and be saved from the judgment I have prepared. But I warn you, the church, to turn to Me with all your hearts, for I am the God who can deliver you from the judgment to come. There is no other God to deliver, but the gods you have set up before Me will lead to your destruction and into further bondage. Therefore I am giving you the opportunity to change your hearts and be saved.

Now, the Bible says that you are supposed to judge prophecies to see if they are from the Lord or not, and you can do what you want with what I just shared with you, but do something with it.

Turn to 2 Chronicles 7:11-16. I want to read to you what the Lord spoke to Solomon after the Temple in Jerusalem had been built.

11When 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, 12the 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, 14if my people, who are called by my name, will 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. 15Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

I want to concentrate on verse 14 as we look to see what God’s desire for the church is and how He will bring it about.

Lord open my eyes to see, and my ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.

I. IF MY PEOPLE… Notice to whom this is addressed. God’s people! Who are you? God’s people! So this is addressed to you as much as it was to Israel. In verse 13 the Lord talks about those things that are going to happen because of the sin of His people. 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… Now that sounds like this is referring to natural disasters – drought, pestilence, diseases – But in the economy of the time of Solomon these disasters translated to an economic slowdown. Now again, this is God speaking to Solomon about His people – Israel. If My people…

II. WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME… Now we get into an even more detailed analysis of whom this is talking about.

God’s people – who are called… Romans 1:6 says, And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. Now, we are not just called, but we are called by His name. That means we are called to be His people and if we are called by His name that means that He gives us His authority. It is interesting that in the OT God only gave authority to certain people by pouring out the Spirit on them to accomplish a specific work. But you are God’s people, called by His name and with His authority – that is for all Christians. What are Christians called to do?