If My People Will
21 Days of Prayer • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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If My People Will
Communion:
I am call for a 21 day fast for our church. Fasting is our body language to God. When we fast, we are expressing our heart’s hunger for Jesus. We should fast not just food, but entertainment, media and worldly junk—delicacies from the world’s table—things that contaminate and limit the power of a fast.
4 week series starting today Feb. 11th. - For those that want to fast from food, I thought it best to start the official 21 days on Monday Feb. 12th after the Superbowl and end on Monday March 4th.
Like last year I will open up the worship center for prayer on Wednesdays. The dates are February 14, 21, 28.
New wrinkle for this year. The worship center will be open at 7am and close at 9am. I am asking our entire church (wherever they choose to pray) to pray together at the same time, which will be 7:14am. I picked this time to coincide with our core verse.
(Bulletin & Slide)
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.
(Slide only)
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.
if my ppl - my name
My ppl alludes to the Jewish ppl. God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants. But what about us?
29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
For those of us who are Christians, the covenant blessings apply. All the promises of salvation, mercy, forgiveness of sins, and spiritual prosperity are ours to claim as long as we remain faithful to God.
(Slide only)
2 Chronicles 7:14 (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.
will humble themselves
God desires those who humble themselves. Humility includes the idea of dependency—the recognition that without the Lord, we can do nothing. Prayer, in fact, is by its nature an admission of our weakness and need. Many Christians don’t pray because they are too proud.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
apart from me you can do nothing
11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Be humble or be humbled?
(Slide only)
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.
Pray and seek my face
(Slide only)
2 Chronicles 7:14 (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.
seek my face
What every time people saw the face of God they died.
20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
Every time we seek the Lords face something should die that should not be alive in our life.
(Slide only)
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.
Will heal their land
Unlike ancient Israel, America is not a covenant nation. God has made no promise to our physical ancestors that guarantees our national status. If Israel had to fulfill the conditions for divine blessing, even though God had covenanted with them as His chosen people, America certainly has no inviolable claim on the blessing of God. As long as unbelief and disobedience to the Word of God color the soul of our nation, we cannot expect the blessing of God. Israel didn’t get it in her unbelief.
That is why the spiritual state of the church in our nation is the key to the blessing of the nation as a whole. If God is going to bless America, it will not be for the sake of the nation itself. He blesses the nation, and has always done so, for the sake of His people. If we who are called by His name are not fulfilling the conditions for divine blessing, there is no hope whatsoever for the rest of the nation.
On the other hand, if the church is fit to receive God’s blessing, the whole nation will be the beneficiary of that, because the Word of God will be proclaimed with power, God will add to His church, and spiritual blessings of all kinds will result. And those are the truest blessings of all.
If my ppl:
Will humble themselves
Pray
Seek my face
Turn from their wicked ways
Then I will:
Hear from heaven
Forgive their sin
Heal their land
When we seriously commit to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and turn from wickedness, He promises to hear us! He promises to forgive our sin and heal our land. Our land—this nation—deeply needs healing! One person alone cannot stop the sin in our land and the tide of immorality sweeping America, but God can when we humble ourselves and seek Him.
Fasting is our body language to God. When we fast, we are expressing our heart’s hunger for Jesus. We should fast not just food, but entertainment, media and worldly junk—delicacies from the world’s table—things that contaminate and limit the power of a fast.
In Judges 20, the Israelites fasted and wept before the Lord in a time of national emergency. Daniel sought God with fasting for the fulfillment of the promise of the restoration of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 29:10-13).
Ezra records, “I proclaimed a fast . . . that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him a straight way for ourselves, our children” (Ezra 8:21 ESV). When you fast and pray in this way, it will affect generations, and the impact will be immeasurable!
HEAR THE SOUND . . . TODAY I CHALLENGE YOU:
Pray and fast for our nation today. Pray for our leaders to do what you are doing: fast, pray, seek God and turn from wickedness. Proclaim God’s promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14 over America!
God answered with four conditions for forgiveness: (1) Humble yourself by admitting your sins, (2) pray to God, asking for forgiveness, (3) seek God continually, and (4) turn from sinful behavior. True repentance is more than talk—it is changed behavior. Whether we sin individually, as a group, or as a nation, following these steps will lead to forgiveness. God will answer our earnest prayers.