KINGDOM REVIVAL SERMON TRANSCRIPT II
PART II: God’s Response to the Sons of Korah Cry for Revival
We ended last time with Psalm 85, in which the Sons of Korah cried out for restoration. That cry for restoration may have been answered in Chronicles, which we will now explore.
In the 1st six chapters of 2 Chronicles, Solomon is building the Temple to house the Ark. In Chapter 7, Solomon completes the building of the temple and turns to dedicating it and throwing a feast. Let’s pick up in Verse 12.
“Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him: ‘I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people,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 will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.’”
God tells Solomon in Verse 12 that He has “heard your prayer.” God is referring to Solomon’s individual prayer. He then says He has chosen the temple for Himself as a house of sacrifice. In the next Verse, He starts off with “When,” although some translations say “If.” God tells Solomon he has done well in building the temple but then warns of things to come: drought, locusts and pestilence. I’ll come back to Verse 14 in a moment. Finally, in Verse 15, God says He will be attentive to prayer made in the temple. He’s now referring to corporate prayer, prayer made by His people from the temple.
Now let’s take a closer look at Verse 14. It is an answer to the cries of restoration. It is a recipe for revival and there are only 4 ingredients: Humility, Prayer, Focus, Repentance.
“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 will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
The 1st ingredient is humility (“humble themselves.”) God is asking for each person to completely surrender to Him. We have a hard enough time surrendering anything, much less everything. That willingness to completely surrender is usually reached at the time of sheer desperation, when we feel that we can do nothing without him. He wants us to take the 1st step, to act. Then the closer we draw near to Him, the closer He will draw to us.
God called us to an individual spiritual revival at the start of the pandemic. He may not have started the pandemic, but He was in control. We had a perfect opportunity to be humble, admit we needed help and turn to God in prayer, thus drawing closer to God, as we sheltered in place. Kana (kaw-nah) is one Hebrew word for “humble.” It means to take a knee, a perfect position to be in for prayer, the next ingredient in the recipe.
The 2nd ingredient is prayer (“pray.”) As we prayed individually at the outset, in our isolation, we prepared for when we could once again pray together. We should have been rejoicing as churches were allowed to reopen. We should have come together and begun praying corporately, prayer through communal worship. We saw earlier how God had told Solomon He had heard his prayer (individual.) Now wants to hear from His people (“if my people …will…pray.”) God is looking for universal prayer for communal healing from His people. It should have been a time for community spiritual prayer for revival when churches were allowed to reopen.
The 3rd ingredient is focus (“Seek My face.”) If we are actively looking for Him in all that we see, we become focused on Jesus and tune out all the distractions. The intent here is not to actually see His face but to be in a constant state of seeking. The Old Testament, God tells Moses it is impossible to see His face and live (Exodus 33:19-20.) But Jesus gives us an “out” in John 14:9 when He tells Philip, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen my father. Thus, Jesus is public face of God. In any event, we must constantly seek the Lord’s face, staying focused on Jesus.
The 4th and final ingredient is repentance (“Turn from their wicked ways”.) God calls us to repent, as did the Ninevites in the Book of Jonah. After trying to run and hide, Jonah relents and does what God has told him to do. He walks the streets of Nineveh proclaiming “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” The people of Nineveh believed and began fasting and put on sackcloth. When word reached the King of Nineveh, he did the same and gave a proclamation that all should fast, don sackcloth, and turn from their evil ways. When God saw this, He relented and spared Nineveh. God is calling us to tur from our wicked ways and ask for His forgiveness.
As a result, God will hear from heaven, forgive our sins, heal our lands. He promises that He will do all these things, not some of them. We know this because each of his promises are connected by a single word: “and.” In fact this verse is an if-and proposition. Each of the ingredients are likewise connected by the same word. The verse starts with “If,” then each of the following propositions are connected by “and:” “If my people will . . . humble themselves AND pray AND seek My face AND turn from their wicked ways” It’s an all or nothing proposition. If we do all those things (humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways,) then He will hear from heaven AND forgive our sins AND heal our land. He is waiting for us to make the first move, hold up our end of the deal. Then He will fulfill all his promises.
We will next discuss God’s present call to action.