Amos 7: 10 - 17; I Peter 2: 9 – 12; II Chronicles 7: 11 – 16 (Sermon)

As we celebrate our country’s Independence Day we need to remember our country’s amazing Christian heritage. This country was founded by Christians seeking the freedom to worship God. God honored their desire and God has really blessed the United States of America. At the same time, as we look at what our country is doing today, we can’t help but wonder what went wrong. How did we as a nation deviate so far from our Christian heritage?

I don’t want to spend much time going over all the evil and the problems we’re faced with as a nation because you see and hear about them every day on the news. Ruth Graham probably summed it up best with these pretty strong words, "If God doesn’t bring judgment on America soon, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah."

That’s a provocative statement, isn’t it? Don’t you think God is upset with America? Is His judgment coming soon, or has it already started? So what can we as Christians do to stem the rushing tide of secularism in our society?

Please look at 2^nd Chronicles 7:14 with me. As we study it let’s keep the context in mind so that we interpret it and apply it accurately. Solomon had just finished the construction and dedication of the temple. After celebrating and praising God for over two weeks, 2 Chronicles 7:10 says that the people went back to their homes joyful and glad in heart.

Later that night, after everyone had left, the Lord appeared to Solomon to tell him that his prayers had been heard. That is the immediate context for 7:14, our passage for today, "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."

The first word of this verse introduces a conditional clause: "If". God is saying that if we follow His instructions, then we will receive His promises. The next phrase identifies whom He is addressing: "my people, who are called by my name." This passage was originally written to the nation of Israel. But the good news is that God says that all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are now, "my people, who are called by my name." In our lesson from 1^st Peter we read: "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

God knows that His people can lose their first love, that we can get soft in our spirituality, and that we can even get numb toward what we know is important. We all need personal revival on a regular basis or we will lose our joy and spiritual intensity. Some of us have grown a bit cold in our walk with God. Many of us need renewal or revival so that we can once again stand in awe of God’s deeds, and rejoice in Him.

Revival is not something to schedule in a church, and revival is not really for lost people. Biblical revival comes to God’s people who are determined to follow God’s instructions so that they can receive His promises. In our text God says, "I’ll be responsible and do certain things, if you will be responsible and do certain things."

In this verse we are given four (4) conditions that we as Christians are responsible to do?

The first condition is to humble ourselves. God wants us to see ourselves as He see us. Humility is the opposite of pride. Friends, we all need to really take a good look at our hearts because pride exalts ourselves and pride excludes God. To really humble ourselves, we must admit that there is nothing good within us and that we can do nothing without God. We are to ask God to meet our needs and we are to trust in God’s provision and not in our own. This is the place to start because we know from James 4:6 that God does not hear the prayers of the proud., "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." If we think we’re better than we are then we have no need for a Savior. We tend to overestimate our goodness and underestimate the sin in our lives.

After humbling ourselves, we are commanded to pray. This seems a little easier than the first one because we all know how to ask God for things. This verse reminds us to pray as Jesus taught His disciples to pray: Begin with the greatness of God and then focus on our needs. Solomon followed this model in chapter 6. He started out with praise in verse 14: "O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth" and then hr moved into petition in verse 17: "…Let your word that you promised your servant David come true." If we want to receive God’s promises then we need to follow God’s instructions by humbling ourselves and praying.

The third condition is to "seek God’s face." This phrase "seek God’s face" is used to describe someone desiring an audience with God Himself. The idea is that we desire to align ourselves with God’s will, God’s purposes, and God’s kingdom. It means simply to get our will in line with God’s.

We all need to ask ourselves "Are we willing to rearranging our priorities so that we can come into The Lord’s presence? "Are we actively seeking an audience with God so that we can know and do His will"? The good news is that Matthew 7:7 promises that when we truly seek we will find. Jeremiah 29:13 says that when we seek God with our whole heart, we will find Him.

And so, as God’s people we are to humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face, and there is one more condition we are to turn from our wicked ways. Turning from our wicked ways is the true test of biblical repentance. We must be willing to turn away from sin and turn toward God? The order here is significant. As we humble ourselves, pray, and seek God with all that we are, our hunger will be satisfied by the sight of God’s face and we will no longer want to hold on to those ungodly things that grieve our "Holy Heavenly Father."

In the Old Testament God’s people often turned their backs on God. We Christians have that same tendency. We need to recognize that anything in our lives that keeps us from being all that God desires for us is a "wicked way" in God’s sight. The effectiveness of our prayers is diminished if we have sin in our lives and if we have doubt in our minds.

Can we honestly pray the prayer of the psalmist "Search me, O God, and know my hearts today; try me and see if there be any wicked way in me; cleanse me from every sin and set me free."

God accepts only one response to sin, God demands that we turn from it! We are not to rationalize sin, excuse sin, and we are not to compare ourselves to others. God’s word gives us the standard. If we want God’s best we must deal with our "wicked ways." God is calling each one of us right now to turn from our wicked ways. We do that by confessing our sin, honestly desiring to abandon our sinful ways, and asking for God’s forgiveness. This verse clearly teaches that as long as we’re hanging onto to our sinful attitude, God will not pour out His blessings upon us.

The good news of this verse is that when God’s people follow God’s instructions we will receive God’s promises. God gives us three promises in this verse. Notice these three promises are conditional since they follow the word, "then." God says if my people will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will do these three things.

First God will hear our prayers. The fact that we have not met one of the conditions may explain why we think God does not answer our prayers. Secondly God will forgive our sins. Remember Psalm 103:12 says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." And 1st John 1:9 states, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". God is the only one who can forgive our sins and God is the only one who can make us clean again.

The third promise is that God will heal our land. The word, "heal" means "to repair" or "to restore." Throughout the Old Testament we read about God healing, restoring, and blessing Israel when the Jews humbled themselves, repented, turned away from their sins and turned to Almighty God.

This same promise is for us. God will heal our land if we as Christians will humble ourselves, repent, turn away from our sins and turn to Almighty God.

It is interesting that God has clearly laid the solution to all of our personal as well as our national problems at the feet of His people. God has clearly laid the responsibility for healing the problems in the United States at the feet of His people. That is us folks. It is time for us to humble ourselves, to pray, to seek His face and for us to turn from our wicked ways!

Our lesson from Amos is clear if God’s word is not what people want to hear they will try to change the message. If God’s messengers are not saying what people want to hear they will tell the messenger to go away, to take that unpopular message somewhere else. That is exactly what is happening in The United states today. Christianity in America is under fire today. Christians are being told, it is OK to be a Christian as long as you practice your Christianity at Church, just keep your religion to yourself. Do not bring your Christianity to work, school, or to the political arena. Just keep your Christianity to yourself. This should not surprise us because in 2^nd Timothy 4:3 we are warned with these words: "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. The fact is nothing will change until peoples’ hearts change. So what are we as Christians to do? God’s word is clear. God’s word clearly says that the solution lies with us as Christians. The solution does not lie with the ungodly people but the solution lies with us, God’s people.

You see the solution to crime, to drug abuse, violence, hunger, disease, teen pregnancies, and pornography problems will never come from Washington or Annapolis. The solution to these problems will only come when God’s people truly seek God and depend upon Him for solutions.

When God’s people follow God’s instructions we will receive God’s promises. Remember, God’s promises are conditional and depend upon us meeting the conditions God laid out in our text today. When we do what God says we will enjoy His promises. We as individuals and as a nation will be blessed when we humble ourselves, repent, turn away from our sins and turn to Almighty God. It is time for God’s people to get serious about praying, repenting, and seeking to do God’s will.

AMEN