June 24, 2001

2 Chronicles 7:11-16

Healing for Our Land

1. Introduction

1. Illustration – Donna Schaper, in Stripping Down, writes, The first thing people do when restoring old chairs is strip – strip right down to the bare wood. They do this to see what the original might have looked like and to determine if the thing is worth doing over. They strip away all the years of grime, the garish coats of paint piled one on top of the other. They get rid of all the junk that’s been tacked on through the years and try to find the solid, simple thing that’s underneath. I’m like an old chair needing that stripping process. Every now and then I have to take a really hard look at the illusions I’ve built up in myself and my society… all that keeps me living off center too long.
2. Context – This process of stripping down that brings centered living is precisely what God was talking about in 2 Chronicles 7:11-16. God knew that His people would get off center in their living and would need healing for themselves and for their land. In this passage, He gives the solution to this problem.

1. Scripture Passage

1. 2 Chronicles 7:11-16 – When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace, ¹² the LORD appeared to him at night and said: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. ¹³ "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague 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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. ¹⁵ Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. ¹⁶ I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.
2. What in the world does a nearly three thousand year old vision from the Lord have to do with us and our country? Why should we take to heart the words God spoke to Solomon so long ago? Because in them is the key to finding healing for our land.

1. The Temple

1. Let’s recap for a minute. Solomon has just finished two major building projects – the temple of the Lord and his own palace structure. He spent twenty years on them. When the temple was completed, all Israel partied with him for two weeks. Then, when Solomon’s done with all the work on the temple and his palace, God appears to him at night and speaks the words we read.
2. God says He has chosen the temple for sacrifices to Him. It’s good stuff, because God has chosen to make Jerusalem a home for Himself among the people. Paul writes, in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. God has chosen a temple for His presence on earth in our day, and that temple is us – those who have received Him as our Savior and Lord and have confessed our sins to Him and asked Him for forgiveness. We are God’s temple. That makes what God said to Solomon that much more important to us to listen to and to act on.
3. Illustration – M. Scott Peck, in The Road Less Traveled and Beyond, says, the "central defect of evil is not the sin but the refusal to acknowledge it." Sin is the issue that God addresses with Solomon. Acknowledging and confessing sin, as we will see, is the only way God can work with us and heal our land.

1. A Four-Fold Problem with a Four-Fold Solution

1. The first word in verse thirteen is important – "When." Not "If." "When." "When bad stuff happens to you because of sin…" We can be sure that God is talking about sin issues because of what He says in verse fourteen. We’ll get to that in a minute. God isn’t a fatalist, but He knows us well enough to realize that our performance doesn’t always match up to our intentions. Let me say that again – God knows that what we do won’t always equal what we profess to believe. So He next gives a description of the remedy that also describes where we went wrong in the first place.
2. God 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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." There is a progression here. Pride leads to prayerlessness which in turn leads to seeking other gods which leads to wickedness, doing things which not too long before would have made us sick to our stomachs. Pride, prayerlessness, seeking other gods, and wickedness sound like the perfect words to describe our society today. We all know how corrupt our culture can be. We all know how corrupt our government can be. And we all know how reluctant we can be to cry out against it because of the corruption we shelter within ourselves. I’m not here to cry out against corruption this morning – I’m here to offer hope. Hope for healing for ourselves. Hope for healing for our land.
3. It’s been said that, in order to communicate effectively for change, you have to get across what you want people to think, feel, and do. God does a very effective job of communicating in this passage. If we want to be healed, and if we want our land to be healed, this is what God wants us to feel, think and do.
4. First, God wants us to humble ourselves. That involves both thinking and feeling. Philippians 2:3 says, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Colossians 3:12 says, Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. James 3:13 says, Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 1 Peter 5:5-6 says, All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." ⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. One dictionary definition of humble is "showing submissive respect." Humility can also be understood as being the opposite of arrogance. Arrogant presumption is what got Adam and Eve in trouble. It is what causes us to get into trouble. But remember that I said that this is a message of hope. God would not tell His people to humble themselves if it wasn’t possible. In fact, we have a greater capability than the Old Testament Jews to humble ourselves because we have the Holy Spirit living within us. How are we to think and feel? If in our thinking we place greater emphasis on the needs and feelings of others, and respectfully submit to each other, our feelings towards them and towards ourselves will begin to change. But arrogant presumption destroys us and destroys churches and destroys countries. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us and listen and act when He tells us we’ve lost the humility that He’s given us. Sometimes He speaks through others. Sometimes directly to our hearts. But either way, if we listen we’ve taken a huge first step toward healing for us and for our land.
5. When we have a humble heart, it becomes much easier for God to challenge our prayerlessness. If we’re humble, then we realize how little we can do without God and how much we can do with Him. We realize that who we are is a far cry from Who He is and who He wants us to be. So we pray. We pray because we know it is the only way we will make it. We pray because we know it is the only way our needs can be met and our hearts healed. If we will humble ourselves and pray, we’ve taken the first steps toward healing for our land.
6. Then we must seek His face. That means putting His priorities ahead of our own. It means considering Him to be the only source of fulfillment in our lives. It means listening to His voice and doing what He says. Seeking God’s face means that we want to be like Christ, to have His attitudes and to do the things that please Him. In order to seek Him, we have to stop chasing after money, or power, or pride, or sex, or stuff, or anything else but God. Whatever we chase after is our god. The most common error we make in trying to seek God’s face is that we limit Who we consider God to be by our own experiences or perceptions or desires. Be very wary of anyone who tells you that you can get to God by stepping on people. Or by doing anything else that runs contrary to Scripture. The Bible is God’s self-revelation to man. When we humble ourselves, when we pray, when we seek God’s face, we have to do it according to what is written in God’s Word. That is our standard. Our standard is not that everyone can believe what they want or do what they want. That’s what got us and our country in trouble in the first place. The Bible is our standard for humbling ourselves, for prayer, for seeking God’s face. Anything else is a false god. And false gods lead us to wickedness.
7. Wickedness is the fourth thing God addresses in His message to Solomon. God evicted the people of Canaan for wickedness. The Israelites, even Solomon himself, found themselves caught up in wickedness. They wound up being evicted, dragged off into exile for seventy years from the land they loved, all because they forgot about the God who loved them and fell into wickedness. When they first entered the land, they never would have considered offering their children as burnt sacrifices to idols to benefit themselves. They never would have considered participating in orgies in order to benefit themselves. They never would have considered cheating and lying and stealing in order to benefit themselves. The people of Israel knew that God was with them and that they had to follow His laws. But they soon forgot. When our country was founded, the people never would have considered murdering unborn children to benefit themselves. They never would have considered rampant promiscuity and adultery in order to benefit themselves. They never would have cheated and lied and stolen in order to benefit themselves. They knew that God’s hand was with them and that He was the key to their success as a nation. But we soon forgot. Wickedness is rampant in our country, in our homes, and in our churches. Christians and non-Christians alike rake godly people over the coals for standing up against sin. It is just plain not right!
8. The only hope for ourselves and our nation is if we humble ourselves before God, pray and seek His face, and turn from our wickedness. That is also an awesome hope, because we have an awesome God. God says in verse fifteen that when we humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways, then His eyes and ears will be open to our prayers. That is an awesome promise! That is an awesome hope! You know, we often think that the problems facing ourselves, our church, and our nation are insurmountable. But that isn’t what God’s Word says. If we as individuals humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways, then as a church and as a country we will be freed to do the same. God will forgive our sin and heal our hearts. God will forgive our sin and heal our land. How much do you want it that to happen?
9. Illustration – John Maxwell writes, I heard a silversmith talk about refining silver. He said, "I must sit with my eyes steadily fixed on the furnace; for if the time necessary for refining be exceeded in the slightest degree, the silver will be injured. I never take my eyes off the silver in the furnace. If I take it out too early, it won’t be purified. If I leave it in too late, it will be injured. When the silver is in the fire, I focus. I don’t let anything distract me. I watch the silver, carefully waiting for the right moment to take it out." "When is the right moment?" I asked. He said, "I know the silver is pure when I can see my face reflected there." When I’m in a storm, as soon as the storm comes, I’m saying, "Okay, God, bail me out. Find me. Rescue me!" Sometimes he doesn’t rescue me. He doesn’t come. But He is the great silversmith. While I’m in the furnace, he focuses and watches. His job isn’t a quick rescue mission. His job is to purify. He holds me until the right moment, and then he comes – never too early, never too late – right on time." God is constantly in the process of refining your heart so you will reflect Him. Which area of your heart is He refining right now?

1. Conclusion

1. If God’s been speaking to your heart about one of these four areas, and you want to Him to start to change your heart, now’s the time to give Him permission to do it. You don’t have to feel it, you just have to believe it in your mind and then your feelings will eventually follow. What has God been saying to you? Which area – humility, prayer, seeking His face, turning from wickedness – do you need His hope in? God is more than able to heal our hearts. God is more than able to heal our land.
2. With every head bowed and eye closed, if you want to tell God this morning that you need His help and His hope in dealing with one of these four areas, then tell Him that by raising your hand. Raise it now as a sign that you are giving Him permission to work in your heart in these areas.
3. Let’s pray.