If you have ever seen the Universal Studios movie “Field of Dreams” then you will more than likely recall that unforgettable scene where Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) is standing in the middle of a cornfield when he hears a voice say to him, “If you build it, he will come.” Ray then looked around and didn’t see anyone, and then he heard the voice speak again, “If you build it, he will come.”
The “it” that Ray was supposed to build was a baseball field, which was to be built right smack dab in the middle of his Iowa cornfield. The “he” that the voice was referring to was Joe Jackson, or Shoeless Joe, who was a member of the 1919 Black Sox baseball team. This voice told Ray that if he built this huge baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield that Joe Jackson would come back from the dead to play baseball there.(1)
Don’t ask me to make sense of the movie. I just want us to recall a statement that is probably wedged deeply in the minds of everyone who has ever seen the movie “Field of Dreams” - “If you build it, he will come.”
We have probably asked the questions, “How do we make the church grow?” and “What are some things we can do to get more people here?” There are some things we can actually try as a church, like outreach events, revival services, Vacation Bible School, and certain programs. There are many outward things that can be done to try to grow a church. Some churches even embark on a building program thinking that a new flashy building will draw people in.
I think there is something more important to focus on than church programs and new buildings, and that is focusing on our spiritual growth. I want us to really think about the statement, “If you build it, he will come.” As we look at 2 Chronicles 7:11-22, I want us to rethink such statements as “If we build it, God’s presence will come,” or “If we build it, many people will come,” or “If we do this or that program then God will show up.”
Is revival the result of the outward things we do such as elaborate programs and new flashy buildings? Or is it the result of the inward man and what is happening inside us spiritually? What must happen “spiritually” before God’s presence will come and dwell among us?
Solomon Constructed a New Church Building (v. 11)
11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s house; and Solomon successfully accomplished all that came into his heart to make in the house of the Lord and in his own house.
In 2 Samuel 7:5-6 the Lord told Nathan to speak to King David and say, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Would you build a house for Me to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle’.” God had commanded David to build for Him a temple, which was basically a church building or a place of worship, but we read in 1 Chronicles 22:7-11 that David had lost the privilege of building the temple. We are told that David had shed too much blood in war, therefore God passed the torch along to David’s son, Solomon.
We see here in 2 Chronicles 7, verse 11, that King Solomon accomplished the task that was given to him. As we are going to see, after he had finished building the temple then God’s presence came and dwelled there. However, I want to ask you, was it because Solomon had constructed a new sanctuary that God’s Spirit dwelled there? Was it the sight of the new temple that pleased God and resulted in His presence abiding there?
He Will Come When We Seek His Face (vv. 12-16)
12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 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. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to [the] prayer made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.”
In verse 12 we gain our first glimpse of why God’s presence came and dwelled in the new temple that Solomon had constructed. God said to Solomon, “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.” God came and dwelled in the temple because Solomon had been continually lifting up his voice to the Lord in “prayer.”
Was it prayer itself that pleased the Lord? No, for in verse 14 God told Solomon that if he desired for His presence to continue abiding in the temple and among the Israelites, that both he and the people also needed to “humble themselves” and “turn from their wicked ways.” Humbling oneself, praying, and repenting of one’s sins are all acts of worship. These actions involve “ascribing worth” to God, which is what worship means, and seeking His will over our own will and desires.
These three things – humbling ourselves, praying, and repenting – are each combined in the expression we read that speaks of “seeking God’s face.” God says, “If My people . . . seek my face . . . I will hear from heaven.” Constructing a new temple did not result in God’s presence abiding among His people, but seeking His face did. With us, enacting a new church program or outreach plan is not the main thing that will result in ushering in God’s presence, and new people; but seeking God’s face, however, will.
In verse 13 God speaks of shutting up the heavens. I believe we can see from this verse that if we don’t seek God’s face this will result in the Lord’s presence departing from us, and then entering into a spiritual drought. So what is “seeking His face?” In the New Bible Dictionary we are told that in the Hebrew or Old Testament world “the ‘face’ of a person became synonymous with his ‘presence’.”(2) Therefore, when we seek God’s face we are seeking His presence.
In Ezekiel 39:23 God spoke of the Israelites in captivity and said, “Because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I hid my face from them.” In Isaiah 59:2, we read, “Your sins have hidden his face from you so that He will not hear.” Seeking God’s face is seeking His presence, and we learn time and time again from the Scripture that we cannot stand before the presence of a holy God if we are living in sin. That’s why Isaiah 59:2 says that our sins will result in God hiding His face from us. Our sins will result in God’s presence departing from among us.
If we are not growing spiritually and seeking God’s face daily, then our hearts are not completely devoted to Him. Anytime that we slack off in our pursuit of God we have sin in our life, and that sin results in God hiding His face until we repent and seek Him anew. If God’s presence it not here like we want it to be, then we need to get down on our knees in prayer and get serious about the Lord.
We can remodel our building, establish plenty of church programs, and invite the best evangelist in the world to speak for us; but if we are living in sin instead of seeking God’s face, then God’s Spirit will depart from our midst. Also, if we are not seeking God’s face then we can’t expect people to start showing up in great numbers. However, exalting Jesus Christ will draw people, for in John 12:32 Jesus said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” The expression of “being lifted up” in this verse refers to Jesus being raised on the cross; however, it has been applied many times before to exalting and lifting high the “name” of Jesus Christ. If we seek God’s face and give glory to Jesus Christ, then our “worship of God” will draw people to Canton Baptist Church.
If we want to boost our attendance and rekindle a vibrant spirit then we must begin by living a life of worship and obedience. We live a life of “worship” by seeking God’s face through prayer and repentance. We also live a life of worship by presenting our bodies as living sacrifices on a daily basis as Paul spoke about in Romans 12:1. We must die to ourselves and make God the sole focus of our lives and our hearts one desire.
We live a life of “obedience” by obeying God’s top two commandments of number one – loving God with all of our heart, soul and mind; and number two – loving our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39). If we can learn to put aside the self that is within us and start putting God and others first, then our church will grow.
If we want God to choose and sanctify our house of worship as a place where His heart will be perpetually (v. 16), then we must be about seeking God’s face. If we don’t seek His face then we will experience a drought of God’s presence, and a drought in attendance as well. So let’s start seeking His face!
He Will Depart If We Fail To Seek Him (vv. 19-22)
19 “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, 20 then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 21 And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and this house?’ 22 Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them’.”
We read here that if we “forsake God’s commandments” and “serve other gods,” then the Lord will depart from our presence. When we stop seeking God’s face these are the two major ways in which we start slacking in our relationship with the Lord.
First, we “stop heeding God’s commandments.” We just looked at God’s top two commandments of loving God first and then loving our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus tells us that the entirety of the Old Testament law hangs on these two commandments (Matthew 22:40). Since this is true, we need to first be seeking a love relationship with Jesus Christ on a daily basis through prayer and Bible study, and secondly we need to start being kind and loving toward fellow church members, strangers, and even toward people we don’t really like. And if we really love our neighbor we will tell him or her about Jesus Christ.
The second thing we do that will result in God’s presence departing from among us is that we “serve other gods.” Another term for serving other gods is “idolatry.” Webster’s Dictionary says that idolatry is an “immoderate attachment or devotion to something,” and “loving or admiring to excess.”(3) Idolatry is an extreme obsession with any person, place, thing, or idea. It is a distraction to our devotion to God.
We all have distractions that keep us from serving the Lord. Many of us won’t take the time to spend with the Lord in prayer and Bible reading, or we won’t take the time to serve Him in the church or community because we are serving the “god of time” and the “god of self.” We serve our hobbies and our own interests instead of the Lord.
Some of us fail to give to God financially because we are serving the “god of money.” We want to take the money that is in our possession and use it on material things to please ourselves, and we forget that what we possess really belongs to the Lord. And there may be some people who serve the god of tradition, and the god of “We ain’t never done it that way before,” and won’t allow the Lord to work in new and fresh ways.
This passage also speaks of the shame and mockery that will result when God’s Spirit departs from His people. If we fail to show love for God by failing to seek His face, and if we fail to show love to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and even people we don’t know or don’t understand; then our church will become the mockery that we read about here in the Scripture. I want to make this passage a little more personal, so I am going to reread it and change a few of the words. Listen very closely. Our personalized passage reads as:
“But if you turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and go and serve hobbies or money, and worship them; then I will uproot you from my land which I have given you; and this church, which I have sanctified for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and will make it to be gossip and a byword among all counties. And as for this church, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this church?’ And they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of sin and death, and embraced other distractions, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore he has brought all this calamity upon them’.” (2 Chronicles 7:19-22).
We see here that if we fail to seek God’s face then His presence will depart from among us. We may build it but that doesn’t mean He will come, and we may build it but that doesn’t mean that many people will come either. We can have the greatest church program that can be found, planned, and implemented, but if we are suffering spiritually then it’s good for nothing. People will not be drawn here until serving God and obeying and loving Him becomes first and foremost in our lives.
If we were a church that were trying to do a building program to bring about church growth I would say, “If there is any building project that will help, it’s the reconstruction of our hearts.” We should allow ourselves to be continually under construction by the Master Carpenter, Jesus Christ.
Time of Reflection
I have been a little tough this morning but I don’t mean to discourage anyone. In fact I want to encourage you. I want you to know that if we start getting serious about God then this church will grow. If we lift high the name of Jesus Christ then people will flock to this place. Let’s lift Him up high as a banner across this area. Let’s develop a love relationship and a passion for Jesus Christ by humbling ourselves before Him, by praying and seeking His face, and by turning from our sins, and let’s also be obedient to love our fellow brothers and sisters. If we do these things then there will be no concern with low attendance, for people will be pouring into this place.
If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord then there are some words in our passage to which you need to pay close attention. In verse 14 the Lord said, “If My people . . . 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.”
In Romans 3:23 we are told that every person in the world is living in sin, and in Romans 6:23 we read that the penalty for our sin is spiritual death. However 1 John 1:9 tells us, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If our sins are to be forgiven and our slate wiped clean then we must humble our self, pray to Jesus Christ and seek His face, and also confess our sins and completely turn away from them.
NOTES
(1) Roger Ebert, “Field of Dreams,” a movie review (1989), taken from the Internet August 2003 at http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/1989/04/349987.html.
(2) D. F. Payne, “Face,” New Bible Dictionary (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1982), p. 365.
(3) Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed. (Springfield, Mass: 1996).
