Oh God Revive Us 2 Series

OH GOD REVIVE US! (PART 2)

Psalm 51; 2 Chronicles 7:14

30 January 2005

Prayer

Audio reading of Psalm 51 (NIV)

Together Read 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV) front of bulletin

Confession, Forgiveness, Restitution guidelines

Revive Us O Lord (slide)

INTRODUCTION

This morning I want to complete the sermon I began last week on the topic of revival, focusing primarily on text of 2 Chronicles 7:14.

But let us first begin by recapping the first part of this message from last Sunday

Revival as I mentioned deals specifically with Christians. And revival may be defined as a renewed conviction of sin and repentance followed by an intense desire to live in obedience to God.

Revival literally means to bring back to life something that is dead or dying. It is a face-to-face meeting with God, a God who is holy, righteous, powerful, a God who is to be feared.

1. IF MY PEOPLE WHO ARE CALLED BY NAME

Now in the first part of this verse it says, “If my people who are called by my name.” God spoke to the people of Israel and said to them IF indicating there was a choice to be made. They could either serve God and be blessed or choose to serve other gods and be cursed.

He was offering them life, peace, prosperity or death, war, poverty and misery. The Israelites were faced with a choice, God’s will or theirs.

Likewise we today, as the children of God are confronted with the reality of choosing life in Christ and obeying His commands or going our own way and paying the price. We face the choice between right and wrong, between good and evil, between obeying God or disobeying Him.

2. WILL HUMBLE THEMSELVES

Next we went on in the verse to see that the Israelites, the children of God were challenged to humble themselves by confessing to Him the fact that they had sinned, they had chosen their own way above His. They were to submit to Him, to His will, to His plans.

And like the Israelites we too are to humble ourselves, to admit our failures, our shortcomings, our sins, because humility is the opposite of pride, recognizing who we are and who God is.

As I mentioned, it means saying, “I’m sorry, “I was wrong,” “I’m part of the problem.” You choose to be the first one to go to someone else not pointing the finger at them.

3. AND PRAY

Then we went on to examine God’s command that the people of Israel were to pray to Him but to first humble themselves, to deal with their sin before they prayed to God.

Further, the Israelites humbled themselves and were to pray both privately and publicly to God taking opportunities to bring their requests to God individually and corporately.

And I mentioned, we too as the people of God at Calvary Community Church are called to come to Him privately and publicly to ask, seek, to cry out to Him that He would have His will, His way in our lives, our church, our community and country.

I also again want to challenge us that If we don’t pray, I believe it is not because we are too busy, or we have too much to do, but rather because we lack the humility to recognize how much we truly need God.

As it says in Zechariah 4:6, “… ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.” Because God’s Spirit moves in response to the prayers of His people, recognizing that our battle is ultimately spiritual in nature not physical.

4. AND SEEK MY FACE

We then went on to the next portion of 2 Chronicles 7:14, which says that the people of Israel were to seek the face of God. And so I spoke about what it means to seek the face of God using the example in Luke 11 of the story of a man whose friend comes to visit him but the man has nothing to offer his guest. And because of this man’s persistence to obtain this food, he gets what he wants from his neighbor, even in the middle of the night.

And likewise I went on to say that we are to petition, to call out, to seek the face of God because He can help us in ways that no one else can. And we must seek Him with all our heart, soul and mind, more than we seek our will to be done.

5. AND TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS

The last part of this verse we looked at last Sunday, God called the Israelites to turn from, to leave behind their wicked ways. If they wanted God’s blessings they would have to choose to stop sinning against God.