Revival: Stronger Than Ever. The Plague Was Cut Short Series

Revival: Stronger Than Ever

The Plague Was Cut Short

1 Chr. 21:9-28

Good morning everybody! It’s good to see you all again!

Prayer for unity

FORECAST

Today we are starting an adventure in revival. Revival simply means to recover something that was lost, or to bring new life to something that is dying.

For many months now our country has been shut down. Lives have been lost, jobs have been lost, loneliness has crept in, and it’s been hard to hold onto hope.

For many of us, the future looks even bleaker. Coupled with the events of the past week, and the weeks to come, 2021 looks to be an even more eventful year than 2020.

But the bible has some good news for us. I thank God for the Bible and that it has lessons for every situation we will ever face.

To see that, let me lay a foundation for us this morning. We will be looking at events in 2nd Chronicles.

Today, I want to start with explaining to you some of the history surrounding this book.

Chronicles was written to teach us how to deal with and to recover from a national crisis. It’s a history book that shows God’s dealings with HIS people.

Let me lay a quick foundations for this book and the world it’s addressing-

In 606 B.C. Israel was exiled to Babylonia.

The Babylonians surrounded Jerusalem, laid siege to it for 7 years, then broke down its walls, and carried virtually everyone into captivity. The Israelites lost everything: their homes, their jobs, their identities, their loved one.

For 70 years they lived in refugee camps outside the city of Babylon. Then God used a Persian King named Cyrus to conquer the Babylonians. Cyrus then issued an order to all the conquered nations.

“Go home,” he said. “Open up your countries. Restart your jobs and businesses, and worship your God.”

So the Israelites did.

In 536 B.C., they returned home. They packed up their possessions and children and marched the 800 miles to the Holy Land.

However, as they traveled, their leaders recognized something-

Living in Babylon and later Persia was no fun, and they never ever wanted to go back.

How would they avoid that?

They realize they have a problem- There wasn’t anyone left that was trained in proper worship of God.

So, How would they recover? How would they establish patterns and morals that would help them avoid their previous mistakes?

God had an answer,

5. God sent them two Spirit-filled leaders: Ezra and Nehemiah

The First leader was Ezra.

Ezra wasn’t a builder of walls, he was a builder of hearts. A builder of character. Ezra lead the people to rebuild the temple as their first priority.

We often wonder what will save America?

The answer- Following the biblical example. Doing exactly what they did in ancient Israel-

They rebuilt the worship of God before they worried about their immediate safety or comfort

Almost 90 years later, Nehemiah came to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Ezra gave people the word long before Nehemiah gave people the Wall.

In our country, and even among the people in the church- that’s why we are in the mess we are in- we focused so much on our safety and comfort, that we forget to put first things first.

If you are a Christian- Jesus is the first priority. In fact, Jesus is the only priority. Anything else on a list with Jesus is an idol.

If we put Jesus back to where he belongs- first, foremost, and LORD over everything, the rest of our worries will take care of themselves.

But for the last several years, the church chose to put our hope and faith in worldly things like politicians and the political processes and then get all freaked out when they don’t work.

Back to Chronicles for the biblical example of what I’m talking about because it will show us the problem with that-

The story we’re going to read is about a plague that was cut short, but the lesson we are going to learn is about what to do when you’ve done something wrong.

Have you ever done something wrong, and you knew it was wrong, but chose to do it anyway? Unfortunately, we’re probably all guilty of this.

King David is no exception. David was one of the greatest leaders who ever lived, and definitely the greatest King in Israel’s history. Yet he failed many times, and God still loved him, and God still used him.

What this section of scripture will show us this morning is that even if we have failed, God still loves us, and still will use us if we can follow the lessons found in the WORD.

To teach us this lesson, the author of Chronicles, Ezra selects, not what we would consider a huge sin in the life of David, but a small sin.