2 Chron. 7:14
Richard Tow 9/18/16
I take as my subject this morning “The Solution for America.” America is in trouble. Almost everyone recognizes that. Our national debt is over $ 19 trillion. We have another housing bubble taking shape. The threat of war rattles throughout the world: in the south seas of China, Korea, Iran, Syria, Ukraine, and Russian border in Europe.i The threat of terrorism is still very real. We have problems that need to be solved.
Our politicians are proposing solutions. We are fully engaged in the process of electing our next president. The first debate between Clinton and Trump will come Monday after next. Two more will follow in October.ii Tremendous resources are being spent on this process. Obama spent $ 745 million becoming president in 2008.iii I do not know what the cost will be for Clinton and for Trump. But millions upon millions of dollars are being spent. Millions and millions of people are hoping for solutions from the political arena.
I do not believe any sustainable solution will come from that direction. I faithfully vote. I appreciate Christians who actively stand for godly values in the political sphere. We should support them. We should do what we can to establish godly laws in the land. But the solution for America will come in a different way.
Have we diagnosed the problem effectively in the first place; or, are we just swinging at symptoms. A competent doctor knows the importance of an accurate diagnosis. If the diagnosis is wrong, the treatment will probably be wrong, as well, maybe even harmful and detrimental. The problem in America is that we have more bad people than good people. We have more selfish people than unselfish people. The condition of the nation is a direct reflection on the condition of the Church. The only hope for America is a godly Church.
The solution for a nation in trouble is laid out in our text. 2 Chron. 7:14. I will begin reading in verse 13. “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence 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 will forgive their sin and heal their land.”iv When you leave God out of the equation, you will probably misdiagnose the problem. God sets the stage in verse 13. “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people.” There are various problems mentioned in that verse. The absence of rain would indicate the absence of prosperity. The devouring of the land with locusts and pestilence additionally undermines the peace and wellbeing of the people. But notice who is ultimately in charge of all this. “When I shut up heaven….” The problems are not just random coincidences of things that just go wrong. God is withdrawing His blessing. He is shutting up heaven (which has both a natural and spiritual application). He is withholding the rain and even sending locusts and other pestilence. I don’t know why Christian leaders are afraid to say that God does this type of thing, since God makes many statements like this in Scripture. If God can shut up heaven, he can also open it up and pour out the rain. He controls it all. So when we start looking for a solution for America, if we come up with one that leaves God out, we probably don’t have a real solution. God gives the solution in 2 Chron. 7:14 “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 will forgive their sin and heal their land.” In the end, if God doesn’t heal the land, the land will not be healed.
I just want to make three comments about this solution.
I. The Solution rests with God’s people, not the world.
The solution begins with these three words, “if My people.” The unsaved people out there in the world will simply behave according to their nature. Sinners will be sinners, and continue to be sinners. They will grasp for money. They will grasp for power. They will lie. They will cheat, steal, manipulate, and do whatever they think necessary to get what they want. This should not surprise us. The Apostle John tells us “… the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). But the solution does not begin with them.
I find it very comfortable to set up a “them and us” dichotomy in my mind. The “them” is all those ungodly people in America who have a political agenda contrary to biblical truth. The “us” is Christians who want a wholesome, God-fearing society. So with that dichotomy, what needs to happen? All those ungodly people in the “them” category need to recognize that we are right and they are wrong. They need to do a 180 degree change in agenda. That is a nice, comfortable, tempting position for me to take. It protects my pride and puts me in the winners’ circle.
But the solution God gives in our text does not begin with those people. It begins with you and me and our fellow Christians who are called by the Lord’s name. “if My people who are called by My name….”: that is where the solution begins. God is not waiting for unbelievers in America to get their act together. He is not waiting for the Supreme Court to point the nation in the right direction. He is waiting for the Church to get turned in the right direction. It all depends on the current response of God’s people.
Had we been walking in the fullness of the Spirit, the nation would have never gotten in this condition.v If we had been doing what we should have been doing, the mess wouldn’t even exist. We have a mandate to be salt and light to the society around us. Darkness does not overcome light; light overcomes darkness. When we let the light that is in us shine, the darkness doesn’t have a chance. Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt 5:14-16). The light that is in us is greater than the darkness that is around us. If we will let that light shine, through what we say and what we do, the light will have its desired effect. Salt is a preservative. In the culture of Jesus’ day, salt was rubbed into meat to keep it from spoiling. Godly people are a preservative in a society. They prevent the natural decay that would otherwise happen. Matt 5:13, "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” Whether you’re using salt as a flavoring or as a preservative, if it loses it quality to fulfill that function, then it is worthless. An unholy Church is salt that has lost its capacity to retard decay, and it has lost its capacity to season the society effectively. A Church full of the Holy Spirit can preserve the society. A Church without the active influence of the Holy Spirit will get trodden underfoot by men. Unbelievers will have no respect for it, and trample over it.
America’s future depends on what the Church does. If the Church is nothing more than a polished reflection of the fallen culture, then it will have little positive impact. If the Church takes the right action, revival will take place that transforms the culture.
We are in a serious time of preparation. This is not a seasonvi for just maintaining the status quo. We have a window of opportunity to prepare ourselves for what is to come. Jesus taught the principle of preparation in the Parable of the Ten Virgins. Five foolish virgins did not use their time wisely. Five wise virgins made the right preparations.vii
The mere passage of time is not enough. Boot camp prepares a soldier to go into battle. It’s a ten week process.viii The process demands discipline and commitment. Sitting on the couch and playing video games for ten weeks is not the same as doing the exercises and learning the lessons. The mere passage of time will not prepare a Christian for what is ahead. But God has a preparation that is everything we need.
II. The Solution in our text specifically tells us what needs to be done.
You have heard me talk about it before; but it has to be our focus. There are all kinds of things that could distract us from what has to be done. Keep the main thing, the main thing.
On Dec. 29, 1972 Eastern Airlines Flight 403 went down in the Florida Everglades. One hundred and one people died that day. As the plane approached the Miami airport for landing, the light indicating the landing gear was down, failed to light up. When the flight engineer tried to remove the bulb, it got stuck. The other crew members tried to help. As the entire crew became preoccupied with the burnt out light, they did not notice the autopilot had been inadvertently disconnected. The plane gradually lost altitude and crashed. While everyone was fiddling with a 75cent bulb, the plane flew into the swamp.ix There are lots of good things to do. But what is the priority that must be attended to? What does God want us to do now?
“if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways….” There are four our elements in this directive to God’s people.
A. “humble themselves”
This is the beginning point if we want to get anywhere with God. 1 Peter 5:5 "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." Jesus told the story of two men praying at the temple. One boasted in self-righteousness. The other humbled himself before God. God heard the second man’s prayer.x “Blessed are the poor in spirit….” That’s the way Jesus begins the Beatitudes during the Sermon on the Mount. To be poor in spirit means to be broken and humble. It’s the first beatitude. It’s the first thing mentioned in our text.
Peter goes on to say, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” Sometimes the hand of God brings us down into humbling circumstances. Maybe the job we have to take is much lower than what we’re qualified to do. Will I simply do the work, trusting God to promote me in due time, or will I buck up against that with discontentment or maybe not even take the job? Maybe the car I have is not the fanciest rig on the road. I remember a 1968 Chevy Impala that I drove when I was pastoring a church in Amarillo. Mechanically the car was great. The engine had been rebuilt and everything about it worked. But it was the ugliest car you have ever seen. The paint had completely faded in the sun and much of it was down to the primer. The dashboard had cracked and someone had covered it with a fuzzy rug. One of the elders really didn’t like me driving that car because it did not give off the image he wanted for the church. The problem was: it was all I could afford at the time.
Have you ever had to work under an obnoxious, incompetent boss? He’s still the boss even if he gives you a hard time over nothing. Those are opportunities for us to humble ourselves. Learn how to recognize opportunities like that and use them to grow in grace. If the hand of God has you under a humbling circumstance, take it as a blessing and humble yourself. Don’t get mad about it. Just deal with the feelings of pride and move on. Our true level of our humility is usually manifested in our relationships. Contention is a child of pride.xi When someone slaps you on the cheek, can you turn the other cheek? Do you have to have the last word? When all is said and done, do you have to be right? Every conflict is an opportunity for us to humble ourselves. Someone might say, “But, Pastor, you don’t understand. I was right and the other person was wrong.” First, that’s what they all say. I’ve conducted hundreds of mediations and one trend is very prevalent. Each party thinks he is in the right. Maybe; maybe not. You can be right about the issue and still be wrong in your attitudes and response. The more pride, the bigger the fight becomes. “A soft answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger” (Prov. 15:1).
God will purposely put you in situations, circumstances, interactions with people that require you to humble yourself. You have to make the decision as to whether you will humble yourself. I have seen situations where people were fervently praying for revival. But the moment someone disagreed with them, the moment someone said anything that crossed their ego, they were out of there. They didn’t get past the first hurdle. When push came to shove, they guarded their pride rather than humble themselves.
What will you do the next time circumstances put you down? What will you do the next time somebody crosses you? That’s when you have to humble yourself. The thing that makes it challenging is that you can’t always see it coming. You can’t always have a dress rehearsal. You can prepare in general by simply deciding that when things like that happen you will take them as opportunity to humble yourself.
When God got ready to do something in Luke 1, he passed over the prideful Pharisees and priests. Instead He used humble people like Joseph and Mary; humble people like Simeon and Anna. God’s eyes are running to and fro throughout the earth looking for people who will truly humble themselves under His mighty hand—people who can be content as servants to others—people who don’t have to have the upper seat—people who will take the training in the school of humility.
B. “pray”
There is a relationship between our propensity toward prayer and our real level of humility. Humility recognizes dependence upon God. Prayer is not just a mechanical thing we go through to keep God pacified. It is our venue for getting our needs met and for getting things done. When our confidence rests in our own sufficiency, we don’t have time to pray. When that self-sufficiency has been broken, we take time to pray.
What does God want His church to look like? Is it to be a house of entertainment or is it to be a house of prayer?xii Having pastored for many years, I have learned we have to be very intentional about keeping prayer central. It’s not a house of prayer if we have all kinds of activities and only do a little cursory, token prayer over them. Prayer is an activity that takes time. It takes time to get your mind settled in to focus on prayer. It takes time to hear God. Prayer is as much listening as it is talking. We have to learn to wait on the Lord. We have to learn to shut out the cares of life and be with God.
Daniel was a man of prayer. He established a habit of praying three times a day. He jealously guarded that time. Even under the threat of death, he would not compromise his prayer time. It got him thrown into the lion’s den. But it also got him out of the lion’s den. When Daniel realized it was time for Israel to return to Judah after 70 years of captivity, what did he do? He prayed. He prayed in the will of God. He understood the role prayer plays in the plan of God. God could do it without us. But He has chosen to do it with us. And the primary way we participate with Him is through prayer.
When God was about to destroy Sodom, he told Abraham about it.xiii Why did He do that? Because He wanted Abraham’s participation with Him. Abraham began to intercede for the city. He asked God if He would spare the city if there were 50 righteous people in it. God answered and said He would spare the whole city if there were 50 righteous people in it. This conversation Abraham had with God shows the leverage we can have with God concerning our society. We don’t need a majority of godly people in America to turn judgement around; but we do need some who are genuinely godly—not just religious. Then Abraham asked if He would spare it for 45 righteous people; then he went to 40, then 30, then 20, and finally 10. God said He would spare the whole city for the sake of 10 righteous people in it. There weren’t even the 10; but Abraham’s intercession got Lot and his family rescued anyway.
if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face….”
C. “seek My face”
To seek God’s face is more than just praying to get my needs met or even praying to get other people’s needs met. It is the pursuit of intimate relationship with God. It is getting to know the Lord by spending time with Him.
The Psalmist said to the Lord, (Ps 27:8) “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ My heart said to You, ‘Your face, LORD, I will seek.’" Do you hear God calling you to intimacy with Him? Is your response, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.” Notice the intentionality in that response. Seeking God’s face requires purpose and discipline. You’ll think of a 1,000 other things to do with your time. That’s why it’s helpful to have a predetermined place and time when you will do that. It probably won’t happen without that kind of commitment.
God’s promise in Jer 29:12-14 “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity….” God says you will find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Double-mindedness will rob us of that blessing.xiv Half-hearted pursuit of God seems to come short of the requirement. But if we will get very, very serious about seeking the Lord two things will happen: (1) we will find Him (2) He will bring us out of captivity. A very high percentage of Christians are prisoners of war. They belong to the Lord, but the enemy has ensnared them with something and neutralized their effectiveness in the kingdom of God. But God says to those people, if you will seek Me with all your heart, you will find Me, and I will deliver you.
Seeking God’s face is building relationship with Him through prayer, worship, and walking in communion with Him on a daily basis.
D. “turn from their wicked ways”
All four of these conditions are interrelated. I probably won’t do much praying if I won’t humble myself. Prayer becomes the gateway to seeking God’s face and knowing Him more intimately. But prayer is not very effective if I won’t turn from my wicked ways.xv Ps 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.” The NIV says, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” I may be struggling with something and have some ups and downs. But if I decide in my heart I will have this sin, then it undermines my effectiveness in prayer.
Many of the wicked ways in the world around us are also in the church. Those things have to be confronted and forsaken. Paul addressed this in the book of Ephesians. He talked about putting away bitterness, forgiving others. He talked about foolish jesting, lying, stealing, sexual immorality, covetousness, and other things that grieve the Holy Spirit.
Your wicked ways may be something different than my wicked ways. I may have a problem with lying and you may have a problem with gossip. If we’re not careful we get busy judging one another, rather than judging our own iniquity and turning from it. People tend to think their wicked ways are not all that bad, but other people’s wicked ways are terrible. God says, “I want you to turn from all of it. I want you to seek Me with all your heart. I don’t want you to have little chambers in your heart that you keep for yourself and then give Me the rest. I want it all!”
The error I see commonly made amongst Christians is to simply acknowledge the sin and ask God’s forgiveness; but make no real commitment to turn from the thing and not do it again. It’s not enough to just acknowledge our wicked ways; God wants us to turn from them. We only have the grace to do that if we pray. Our text says, “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 will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
III. The Solution is guaranteed to work
“I will hear” – I will forgive…heal….” We don’t have to beg Him to do it if we meet the conditions. On the other hand, no amount of begging will persuade Him if we won’t meet His conditions.
Isa 1:19-20 “If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; 20 But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword"; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, God is looking for obedience. The empowerment for that obedience is very different. But God has never stopped calling His people to obedience. When we do that, He will (without fail) do His part.
I’m not sure I can trust the promises that are politicians are giving. I don’t see a real strong connection between what they say they will do, and what they actually do. But I am certain I can trust the promises of God. All the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus.xvi God will do His part if we will do what He tells us to do.
Notice the progression here in God’s response.
“then I will (1) hear from heaven,
The prayer is received and accepted.
Jer 33:3 “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” God’s got some things He wants to show us—awesome things. If we will call upon Him He will answer from heaven. (2) and will forgive their sin He will remove the obstacle to our intimacy with Him. He will forgive it based upon what Jesus has done for us at the cross. He will cast our sins as far as the east is from the west.xvii (3) and heal their land.
The healing of America will come through an outpouring of the Spirit. It will come as God changes one heart at a time.xviii Jesus did not come as a political revolutionary. The Jews were expecting Him to come that way. But He came as a Savior; He came as a Redeemer. He came to give life one person at a time. But as people are changed by the Spirit of God that translates into a change in the society; and that translates into a change in the direction of a nation.
God has an answer to every problem America faces. All we need is His favor and His guidance. But it all depends on the Church: “if My people who are called by My name….” All I can do is respond to that call myself and encourage others to do likewise. The window of opportunity is open for us to do that. Seize the opportunity.
Invitation
END NOTES:
i Information retrieved Sept. 17, 2016 at the following sites: http://www.wnd.com/2016/09/congressional-report-warns-of-growing-war-threat/; http://www.businessinsider.com/the-world-is-facing-a-growing-threat-of-nuclear-war-2015-3; http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33440287.
ii “Clinton vs. Trump U.S. Presidential debate schedule 2016, dates, times, moderators”, The Oxford Eagle, retrieved 9-16-16 at http://www.oxfordeagle.com/2016/09/03/clinton-vs-trump-u-s-presidential-debate-schedule-times-moderators/.
iii “Presidential Campaign Receipts” retrieved 9-16-16 at http://fec.gov/press/bkgnd/pres_cf/2008PresCamp/1_OverviewPresFinActivity1996-2008.pdf.
iv All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
v Acts 17:6; Prov. 14:34
vi The Greek word Kairos is sometimes translated season or opportunity.
vii Matthew 25:1-13
viii “Army Boot Camp Timeline At a Glance,” retrieved 9-16-16 at http://www.military.com/join-armed-forces/army-boot-camp-schedule.html.
ix “Eastern Air Lines Flight 401,” retrieved 9-16-16 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_Flight_401.
x Luke 18:9-14
xi Proverbs 13:10
xii Isaiah 56:7; Matt. 21:13
xiii Gen. 18:17
xiv James 1:6-8
xv Prov. 28:9
xvi 2 Cor. 1:20; Titus 1:2
xvii Psalm 103:12-13
xviii Acts 3:19
