Reading of Scripture: 2 Chronicles 7:1-3
Scripture Text: 2 Chronicles 7:1 “When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifice, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.”
Revelations 1:17:18 “Fear not: I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and Behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen.”
Sermon Title: “When God says Amen!”
Three books I recommend for your supplemental reading:
The Prayer Tradition of Black People by Harold A. Carter
Essentials of Prayer by E. M. Bounds
Conversations with God by Dr. James Melvin Washington
When God says Amen or in other words when does God say Amen to our prayers.
The term Amen is used biblically to acknowledge the validity of a saying and its reliability – so be it.
Let the church say Amen. Therein lies the problem. We have so used the term that it has become a colloquialism – a common expression.
Let me explain: have you ever sat down to a meal and was so hungry and the food so sumptuous and delectable, its that home cooking that only mama can cook. Its you turn to say the grace; you bow your head, think about the good food, and say amen and grab your fork.
That symbolizes the problem. Our prayers are too shallow, too short, and too simplistic.
Prayers that are too shallow focus upon our own needs and not the needs of others. Jesus says to us “take no thought for your live, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; not yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body more than rainment? Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap … Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. O ye of little faith? … But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Prayers that are too short fail to connect you to the historical move of God and your role in God plan. If God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and we look only at today and our needs for tomorrow, we forget that God has made a way out of no way. That God is and was an ever-present help in a time of trouble. That we are connected to a rich history and tradition that is spirit led, that has been spirit fed, and was spirit bred.
“We have come this far by faith, leaning on the everlasting arms. Trusting in his holy word, he has never failed me yet, Oh! Oh! Oh! can’t turn around.
Prayers that are too simplistic fail to recognize the awesomeness of God. A simple prayer doesn’t dry up the red sea, a simple prayer doesn’t deliver you from a fiery furnace, a simple prayer doesn’t deliver your from the lion’s den. A simple prayer doesn’t get you freedom when the constitution has deemed that you are only three fifths human. A simple prayer doesn’t get you voting rights, equal accommodations, and civil rights. A simple prayer doesn’t raise your children in a single headed household and send those children off to college when you don’t have any money, but you say to your children go to college anyhow. Simple prayers fail to recognize the awesomeness of God.
The reason why are prayers are too shallow, too short, and too simple is that we fail to recognize the situation we are in.
The written bible record culturally hinges on one fact. The temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. The City of David, The Temple of God, The City built on a hill. The place where the Ark of the Covenant was placed was destroyed in 70 A.D. The visible sign of the presence of God was no more. This created a problem for the people of God.
What do we do when the temple has been destroyed? Why was the temple destroyed? How was the temple destroyed?
Essentially, the people of God failed to protect their faith from the enemy. They got so caught up in their religious differences, religious jealousies, religious rituals, religious perks and privileges that they failed to protect their symbol of faith from the enemy.
That’s what happened to us. We are caught up in religiosity, but not spirituality. We are so focused on the things of this earth that we are missing Him who created the earth. “The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof and they that dwellth therein.”
Our temples have been destroyed: Not the physical structures, but the human structures.
1 Corinthians 6: 19 “What” know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
In the old temple the law was contained in the Ark of the Covenant, but in the temple the law is to be written in everyone’s heart.
Jesus tells us that his temple shall be called a house of prayer for all people.
If we are every going to change our condition, situation, predicament, that we will need people who can pray prayers for which God will say Amen.
Our text points out to us a few keys that will illustrate to us the prayers that cause God to say Amen.
1. 2 Chronicles 6:13 Humble yourself before God.
God doesn’t care how high your name is one the listing of the fortune 500 or on the poverty index. Under his name every need shall bow and every tongue shall confess. Solomon humbled himself before the Lord.
2. 2 Chronicles 6:17 Pray for confirmation of God’s Word.
3. 2 Chronicles 6: 22 Pray for others
4. 2 Chronicles 6:34 Pray for strength to confront evil
5. 2 Chronicles 6:36 Pray for reverence and respect of God’s Presence
And when you pray like that God will send his presence that is represented by fire.
2. Chron. 7: 1 “…fire come down from heaven…”
When God says Amen his presence comes. When God says Amen his glory comes.
When God says Amen his fire comes. Fire in the bible represents God’s presence.
Moses looks at the mountain on the back side of the plains of Midian and found his self on holy ground in the presence of God.
Elijah fighting the prophets of Baal called upon God and God sent down fire.
Jeremiah says his word was in mine heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones.
When God says Amen, his fire comes.
When God says Amen, his presence fills the place
When God says Amen, his glory is revealed.
When God says Amen, even the priest have to get out the way.
Because when God says Amen, he is coming for his people.
And the bible says that when the people saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt, they worship, they gave thanks.
He is good; his love endures for ever.
God is good, his love endures forever.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintages where the grapes of wrath are stored.
He hast loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword.
His truth is marching on.
