Oakbrook Evangelical Free Church

2 Chronicles 7:13-14 ““If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” NASB95
Introduction:
Have you ever had misgivings about the “shedding of blood” in the Old Testament? Why would God not only allow his people but command his people to wipe out their enemies? And then discipline his people for not thoroughly completing the task he gave them to do?
This seems so counter to the dominate cultural view of leniency!
The message today is about the relationship between God’s people and their potential impact on our nation’s health. First, our passage today sets the context.
2 Chronicles 7:13 “If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people”
Do you see that in this passage God is talking about controlling the weather and petulance to discipline or judge the nation?
I. National Accountability and Security!
A. God created the nations
Acts 17:26-29 “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.” ESV
(See also Psalm 74:15-17)
Do you see it? God created the nations and determined their boundaries.
B. God holds the nations accountable
Genesis 15:13-21 “Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” NIV
Acts 7:45 “Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. ” NIV (see also Judges 2:16-23, esp 23)
Does this create some dissidence in your thinking about God?
Does it make you feel uncomfortable that he intervenes in national affairs?
How you and I not sung the hymn that calls God “Ruler of the nations”?
C. God is sovereign in national affairs
Daniel 2:20-23 “Daniel said: “Praise be to the name of God forever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king.” NIV
TS. So, can prayer make a difference? Does God allow His people a part to play in the course of human and national history?
Can we make a difference?
And I’m not talking about in this distance future!
I’m talking about legacy!
Within the sovereign control of God, can you and I hand our children and grandchildren a better world!
I am totally excited when I drive up and see the progress on this building.
Dean Schultz, the architect who designed this building was hear on Friday.
We walked around and he could see in reality the building he drew on paper. He was totally excited with a big smile on his face.
We walked around upstairs. I reminded him of our dream to build a Friendship Shelter near the school and to add parking that we would designate for teachers and staff during the week in exchange for the use of their parking lot when our growth warrants it.
All of us are excited about participating in a process that will enable our children to learn about Christ, come to faith in him and grow in their relationship with God.
But this morning I’m asking an even more fundamental question.
Can we impact current national events and leave our children a nation in better health? And, if we can make a difference, how are we to do this?
II. Our Role in the health of our nation!
Let me remind you of our verse for today:
2 Chronicles 7:13-14 ““if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
I am fully aware that this verse is in the OT and that it is about God and his people Israel.
I am also fully aware that in the NT the people of God is the church and I submit to you that this promise applies to the church in whatever nation it finds itself!
I do not want to get side tracked the take the time to defend my position. This morning I merely want to encourage us to enthusiastically join together tonight to fervently pray asking for God’s forgiveness for our sins and for him to have his way in this election!
This isn’t really about politics.
It is about our national moral temperature for the foreseeable future.
It’s about our nation’s commitment to Israel.
It’s about the resulting economic impact that will have.
A. If my people who are called by my name!
Deuteronomy 7:6-9 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.”
1 Peter 2:9-12 “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. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” NIV
B. Will humble themselves
A rider on horseback, many years ago, came upon a squad of soldiers who were trying to move a heavy piece of timber. A corporal stood by, giving lordly orders to “heave.” But the piece of timber was a trifle too heavy for the squad.
“Why don’t you help them?” asked the quiet man on the horse, addressing the important corporal
“Me? Why , I’m a corporal sir!” Dismounting, the stranger carefully took his place with the soldiers.
“Now, all together boys—heave!” he said. And the big piece of timber slid into place. The stranger mounted his horse and addressed the corporal.
“The next time you have a piece of timber for your men to handle, corporal, send for the commander-in-chief.”
The horseman was George Washington.
President George Washington, September 17th, 1796 “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible”
His Prayer At Valley Forge “Almighty and eternal Lord God, the great Creator of heaven and earth, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; look down from heaven in pity and compassion upon me Thy servant, who humbly prostrates myself before Thee.”
“Bless O Lord the whole race of mankind, and let the world be filled with the knowledge of Thee and Thy Son, Jesus. “Of all dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.”
“To the distinguished character of a Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of a Christian.”
The draft of the circular letter is in the hand of a secretary, although the signature is Washington’s. Some have called this concluding paragraph “Washington’s Prayer.” In it, he asked God to: “dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.”
George Washington as he resigned his commission as general of the Continental Army on December 23, 1783. “I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my official life by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God and those who have the superintendence of them into His holy keeping.”
Originally discovered in 1891, the Washington Prayer Journal has electrified both supporters and denouncers of Washington’s Christian faith. As can be seen from a sample from this journal, the language used clearly supports a deep abiding faith in Jesus Christ, which has naturally caused friction between secularists and believers. Here is just a sample from the Journal for you examine:
“O most Glorious God, in Jesus Christ my merciful & loving father, I acknowledge and confess [illegible] guilt, in the weak and imperfect performance of the duties of this day. I have called on thee for pardon and forgiveness of sins, but so coldly and carelessly, that my prayers are become my sin and stand in need of pardon. I have heard thy holy word, but with such deadness of spirit that I have been an unprofitable and forgetful hearer, so that, O Lord, tho’ I have done thy work, yet it hath been so negligently that I may rather expect a curse than a blessing from thee. But, O God, who art rich in mercy and plenteous in redemption, mark not I beseech thee what I have done amiss, remember that i am but dust, and remit my transgressions, negligences, & ignorances, & cover them all with the absolute obedience of thy dear Son, that those sacrifices which I have offered may be accepted by thee, in and for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ offered upon the cross for me…”

C. The Promise of Prayer
Luke 18:1
James 4:2 “You want something but don’t get it…You do not have, because you do not ask God.” NIV
John 16:24 “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” NIV
Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, “to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” NIV
READINGS: S.D. Gordon; Bryant; ________-
Big Idea: The spiritual health of God’s people directly impacts the health and security of the nation in which they live!
In essence God invites us to have a direct role in our nation’s future!
He is not inviting us to a “big rush” pleading with God for one candidate verses another. He is inviting us to a lifestyle of righteousness and prayer.
From the Book of Common Prayer:
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent, for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.