Sermon: What God Wants Us To Do This New Year (2 Chronicles 7:14): Pastor Tito Dizon

What GOD wants us to do this New Year! 2013

2 Chronicles 7:14 

 

Introduction

If there is any hope for America today it is in God. We sing "God Bless America", but it seems that many Americans have forsaken God. In many ways, our country has forsaken Him. He is no longer welcome in our schools. He is scoffed at and laughed about by many.

The Rising crime rate...
Danger of walking down the street esp… in the Capitol.
People Pre-occupied with sex.
No sin in having sex as long as you love.
Pornography and filth everywhere movies-stage-magazines.
Broken promises (divorce, presidential campaigns).
Marriage considered just a piece of paper.
Widespread use of alcohol and drugs…to legalize marijuana

The sin of neglect.

1. Neglect to worship Him.
2. Neglect to call upon Him.
3. Neglect to serve Him.

Sin of rejection-A step beyond neglect.
Another god enthroned = The national god of pleasure, materialism, and intellectualism.

THE FOLLY OF TREATING SYMPTOMS.
1.Let's form action committees. Crime study commissions.
2. Let’s have Drug abuse seminars.
3. Let’s organize “Citizens against filth.”

If you go to a doctor because of a headache caused by a brain tumor and he gives you aspirin so you won't feel the pain, you're not cured. The best way is to remove the cause- where it originates. Our hope lies in getting back to God! One of the greatest hindrances of that happening is Christians who are not consecrated to God. The more believers who get right with God, the better country we will have.

Read: 2 Chronicles 7:14 New International Version (NIV)

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 I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

1. One of key words in this verse is the word "If". What’s the connotation of the “If” We’ll forget, not do it, or take for granted. Conditional.  We’ll be force only if urgent or see the importance

2. Who are God’s people?

A. Every person is a creation of God. The population of the world continues to increase, and is now over approx. 7 billion people. However, not all are God's people in the spiritual sense, because many hate Him, others reject Him, and still others simply ignore Him. Only those who have been born again have a relationship with God as child to his father. Jn:1:12

B. There is a vast difference between the true people of God and other people. God's people have trusted in Someone other than themselves. If you are not His people, you need to come to Jesus Christ, confess your sins and call on Him for your soul’s salvation. God's people seek His glory rather than their own.

3. God's people are serving God.
4. God's people are headed in a different direction.

All come to the point of making a decision whether to follow Christ or go their own way.

C. “Called by My Name” – Christians. This was a name given to the believers in Antioch. cf. Acts 11:26 Now this is the brightest badge that anyone can wear.  It means to be Christ-like. We must live up to the name. Alexander the Great found that one of his soldiers that carried the name of Alexander had proven to be a coward. He called the man to appear before him and instructed him to either live up to the name or change it! If we bear the name of Christ, the world expects more of us! Others may go certain places and do certain things and the world pays no attention to them, but if we carry the name of Christ... We bear His name before a world that does not know Him.

We must be careful how we live, how we act & what we say. We are to live and conduct ourselves like we are the children of God.

What Must We Do!

A. First, we are to humble ourselves: A Call To - Humility – WHAT IS THE NATIONAL SICKNESS? National Pride. This is not easy for the average American. Acknowledging His Lordship and headship in our lives.

We are a proud and boastful people. Our technology is far advanced, our standard of living is one of the highest, and our luxuries are out of this world.

We're a strong nation. Trying to leave God out.  Thinking we can live independently of Him.

The word “humble” means “to bend the knee; to bring down .” Pride will not allow the prideful person to bow their knee to the Lord!He wants us to bend the knee to His authority in our lives. God’s people need to realize that we were nothing when He found us; we would be nothing without Him and that we can accomplish nothing apart from His power in our lives, John 15:5.

Pride says, “I do not need God, I can make my own way. I know best. I call the shots in my life.” To humble ourselves means We are admitting our weakness and reaching out for His power. We are saying I can't, but you can! To admit that there is nothing good within us and that we can do no- thing without Him.

B. A Call To Prayer - This word means just what it says - pray! Prayer means: We approach & appeal to God; expect, & appropriate from God. What should we pray? We should pray that God would reveal to us our need for Him. It is, in essence, humility in action. Sees his own inability and recognizes God's ability. That God would reveal to us our sins against Him. That God would forgive us and cleanse us.

Pray in your homes, in your cars, at you jobs, in the prayer rooms, in the altars, Starbucks, Badminton courts, Panera Bread, everywhere. Prayerlessness is the first cousin to pride. Prayerlessness says, “I do not need to call on the Lord, I can make it just fine without His aid.” Prayerlessness relies on self and the resources self can produce and refuses to lean on Jesus alone.

We have to come to the place where we sacrifice our pride on God’s altar; declare our utter helplessness;

C. A Call To - "seeking His face". - my direction, guidance. This idea here is that we come to the place where God is the number one priority and desire of our heart! That is, nothing in life is more important, more precious or more needful to us than having God and all He has to offer.

The word “face” refers to “the countenance; to turn toward His direction.” This little phrase is a call for God’s people to stop looking for help and purpose in every other thing in life. They are called upon to make God their primary focus and their first priority.

If you had to be really honest today, what is the number one priority in your life? Is it your job? Is it your bank accounts or retirement? Is it your family? Is it your church? Is it your spouse? Is it your hobby? Is it the Lord? When God is our first priority, the things He cares about are the things we will care about. He wants us to love what He loves, hate what He hates and do what He does.

If you really want to know what your priorities are today then ask yourself three questions:

1. On what activity do you spend most of your time?
2. On what do you spend the bulk of your money?
3. On what do you focus your thoughts?

Look at where you go; what you do and where you spend your money. Do that and you will have a good idea of your priorities in life. Listen to what a couple of verses have said about this matter:

Psalm 42

1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.

Do you get the picture? Seeking the Lord’s face is about wanting Him more than anything else in this world!

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When can I go and meet with God? It is about placing His face before you as the single most important motivator in your life. It is about taking time to spend time with Him in prayer and study of His word.  How devoted would you say that you were to seeking his face? Spending time w/ Him…Talking (Praying) & Reading His Word

We cannot look into the Lord's face and not be changed. 

Illustration: It Easy to forget what made us strong. At turn of 20th Century, 90% of public education Bible related. Today it is a crime to read Bible in public classroom, or to pray to God...but not a crime to blaspheme God. Outlaw the teachings of evolution instead of outlawing the Bible from our educational systems.

D. A Call To Purity - The phrase "turn from their wicked ways" is self explanatory!  God wants His people to stop their sinning! We are to examine our lives, identify anything that does not please the Lord or line up with His Bible, and we are to eliminate that from our lives!  As we humble ourselves, pray and seek His face, our sin will become increasingly clear.

We do not like words like repentance. They have the tendency to make us feel as though our lives are lacking in some area or the other. The fact is that people must be clean! Church people sin! They steal, they lie, they cheat; they commit adultery; they engage in sexual activity outside of marriage; they carry hate in their heart; they walk in pride; they walk in hypocrisy;

What we must do is stop defending our sin…and forsake it! We are saved by grace, but grace is never a license to sin! We need revival, but ... it will only come to those who get honest about their sin; who confess them; forsake them and turn to God with all their hearts.

The heart which has had its hunger satisfied by the sight of God's face will no longer want to hold on to the things that grieve our Heavenly Father. If we will meet the requirements, then we create an atmosphere in which we can experience some tremendous spiritual rewards from the hand of the Lord.

What God Will Do?

A.God Will Hear Us -“Then will I hear from Heaven” We all know that sin terminates the lines of communication between the believer and the Lord.

Psalm 66:18
18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;

When we, God’s people, deal with this “if” situation; we are assured that God will hear us.

Psa. 84:11, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory:no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

B. God also promises to "forgive our sins". Only God could forgive our sins and make us clean again. If we confess...He is faithful to forgive and to cleanse. cf. 1Jn. 1:9  We can be in close fellowship with Him. The ability to come into His presence, to worship Him, to sense His power, His peace, His joy and His presence is priceless!

C. God Will Heal Us – The word “heal” means “to stitch back together; to repair thoroughly.” They were warned that their sins would be answered by the Lord through drought. This would devastate their land and their population. However, the Lord's promise to them is that repentance equals rain. If they will open their hearts, He will in turn open the heavens.

In a sense, we are in the same situation today. Our homes, communities and nation have been devastated through a drought of spiritual blessings and power. I am tired of seeing what sin is doing to our homes, our churches and our nation. If real revival ever came to our lives, we would never be the same! It would change us and everything we touch too!

I know that this is a particular promise to the nation of Israel, but I see an application here for America. America is made up of individuals, and as individuals turn from their sin and seek God's face... Then we will begin to see healing come to our troubled land.

Conclusion

Change for the good will happen to us as individuals "if".  Everything hinges on us being in that place that God desires for us to abide in. If we will meet the requirements on our end, we can be sure that God will move on His end. While genuine change is always sovereign in its origin,  we can create an atmosphere where it becomes more likely.

In that atmosphere, while genuine revival is not a guaranteed event, at least on a corporate level, it will become a reality on a personal level!

1. Are you His people? If not you can be! Are you a Christian? Have you been born into the family of God? If so, are you living up to the name that you bear?

2. Are you willing to come before Him humble yourself, pray, seek His face and turn from your wicked ways? Are you willing to be and do whatever it takes to see real revival came to your life, your church, your family, your community and your nation?

Resources taken from the following people: David DeWitt, Robert J. Morgan, Raymond Perkins , Alan Carr, Chuck Smith & Don Robinson