If My People Pray
Pastor Zach Pummill • August 23, 2020
Sermon Overview
2 CHRONICLES 7:11–16
This begins a new series this fall that we have entitled "Pray God Down." We begin with hearing God's invitation in times of plague and pestilence to recognize his sovereignty and his purposes in Jesus Christ.
Sermon Transcript
Who doesn't love a great story of adventure? A story of an ordinary person stepping into the unknown. There's something that fascinates us about stories, where someone was going on with life as they knew it, and then in a moment, life changes forever. A moment where an old life is left behind, they step into the unknown, and they awaken to a greater reality than they ever even knew existed. And they become a part of something far more extra ordinary than they ever imagined. We love stories of adventure.
And so we love those stories that begin with the opportunity to take either the red pill, or the blue pill. We love the stories that begin with the dwarf knocking on the door of a Hobbit-hole. Or when a wardrobe is found buried deep in a dusty old mansion, or when an owl shows up with a letter in its beak addressed to the boy in the cupboard, under the stairs. Simple moments after which life is never the same moments in which life moves from ordinary to epic.
Why do we love these stories? Why do they captivate us? Perhaps in part it's because we too long to be rescued from the mundane, and awaken to a greater sense of purpose, and know that our lives have meaning, and value, and significance. There's something that excites us about the possibility of an adventure that lies on the other side of our willingness to step into the unknown, and awaken to something altogether more. And perhaps we need to recognize that that desire is within all of us. The desire for more.
And yet, at times it can be hard to articulate. It can be hard to even know where to find it. We feel it at the end of a long day, we feel it when we hear a beautiful piece of music. Perhaps that's why we consume shows as much as we do. Or why people have affairs, and why drug and alcohol abuse is so prevalent. We desire more than the life that we have. We want a live that's about more than bills, and the endless search for toilet paper.
And you may not think of your life in those terms. You may not think of your life is essentially a hunger for something more, but that's actually a very biblical idea. The very beginning of the biblical story begins with a literal hunger for more, a piece of fruit hanging on a tree. The entire book of Ecclesiastes, is devoted to the search for meaning, and significance and purpose, and there's the bitterness and brokenness, and sadness of this world. So we're drawn to these stories because for a moment it awakens that desire for more within us.
But what if I said that we're drawn to these stories because they give us a glimpse of how God actually works? Because all of these stories are really just pointing to a bigger story. And they're all really just borrowing the creative capital of God, because we see these same dynamics at play in this story that He has been telling. We see these same dynamics at play all throughout the Bible. We're in a moment, an old life has left behind and a new life begins, as these little heroes step into the unknown.
And so Abraham in a moment is told to pack everything that he has and travel to an unknown land, never to return again. After 40 years of living in the monotony of exile, when his prime was passed, Moses sees a burning bush out of the corner of his eye. David on an otherwise ordinary shepherding kind of day, sees his brother come to him and tell him that Samuel, the prophet wishes to see him. You have ordinary, nobody, fishermen simply going about their lives, worrying about the next fish. When they hear the invitation come and follow after me. If we look at the story closely, how is it possible to follow this God without a willingness to step into the unknown? Without a willingness to step into a place you've never been, do something you've never done, go someplace you've never gone? He does after all operate by faith, not by sight.
And we see time and time again when God enters the equation, and old life has left and a new life begins awakening to greater awareness and a sense of purpose, a greater sense of reality that's at work in the world. Time and time again, we see how God interrupts the course of life, and He invites his people into the unknown to awaken them to something all together more. He is the God that reveals Himself in the unknown, the uncertain, and the unpredictable. And that should be good news to us, why? Because hashtag 2020.
We live in very uncertain times with an unknown future, which is unpredictable as ever. And there's no doubt, we left an old life behind and marched in many ways the world will never be the same. Time will be marked by the very days in which we are living. We live inside of this steady diet of concentric circles of world changing events that seem to happen one after the other. The soil is shifting beneath our feet so rapidly that I put the question before you, is it even possible to keep up? You're inundated with information about all of these things in which the world is no longer the world we thought it was. And we don't know the world that it's going to be. We've reached a tipping point on issues of race and gender, as decisions are being made from the highest levels of court in our land facing global market instability, job uncertainty, and all of that is inside an election year. And all of that is inside of a global pandemic that will never leave the world the same. Not to mention the fact that you are having to make all sorts of new decisions, having to deal with all of the challenges that you are facing. Make no mistake, the world has been brought into the unknown, the unexpected, and the uncertain.
So how are we to think about all of that? How are we to think about everything that's going on around us? How are we to make sense of it? Because attached to the unknown, and the uncertain is confusion, fear, unawareness of what tomorrow brings.
And in these moments, God can feel very distant as though He's left the building and amidst all of that, we feel like we can just be lost, in a drift in the sea of life. And so what are we to make of everything that's going on? We need to remember what the story of God tells us about who He is, and how He operates. In the passage this morning, we're shown that in the midst of the chaos of the unknown, that God is actually very much at work. And we see that once again, it's in unknown that He awakens His people, and invites them in to something more.
Which makes our question very simple. How do we lay hold of that? How do we see it? How do we take possession of it?
Verse 12: Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the 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 the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people".
Now, if we stop there, we need to recognize that these words come right after Israel just experienced the most monumental moment in their history. The temple had just been built and completed in Jerusalem. And when it was consecrated, the glory of God came down and filled the temple. This was the fulfillment of all of Israel's hopes, and desires for centuries that they had. And all of it finally came to pass. And it was a new beginning because now they had the opportunity to fully and finally become the people that God intended them to be. Which is a light and blessing to the nations. These are good, these are going well, promises have been kept, the future is bright, exciting. And then you get these words. In the very next chapter.
God comes to Solomon with these very words and says, "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence or disease among my people". He's saying the party is not going to last forever. Don't get so comfortable and feel like you can just sit back, and coast into eternity and just fall asleep to my purposes. Because notice in that verse, God doesn't say if. He says, when, when I bring droughts, when I bring famine, when I bring plague and disease. God is giving Solomon a window into a greater reality that's at work. He's telling Solomon that when these things happen to remember that they come from His sovereign hand, He's inviting Solomon to see the world through His sovereignty.
And maybe that word sovereignty is unfamiliar to you. Maybe you come from a Christian tradition where you didn't hear about the sovereignty of God very much. And so what does that even mean? What do we mean when we say that God is sovereign?
It means we believe that God is writing the story of history. It means that we believe that God declares the beginning from the end. He is the God who works all things according to the counsel of His will, and there's nothing that can forte his purposes whatsoever. He's the God that does what He wants, when He wants how He wants. Isaiah says that "He's the God that forms light, and creates darkness, He brings prosperity and He creates disaster". Amos asked the question, does disaster not come to a city unless the Lord Himself has done it? Hebrews says that He upholds all things by the word of His power, from the smallest molecule, to the biggest supernova, all of it exists simply because He says so. He's the God of the big, and He's the God of the small. Proverbs says He determines every roll of the dice, and every lot that's cast. He provides for every flower of the field, He knows every hair that's on your head, He formed you in your mother's womb, and He wrote all the days of your life in His book before you were ever even born. Nothing is unknown, nothing is uncertain to Him.
He's the God that brings pleasure and joy, and He's the God that brings pain and pandemic. All things come from His sovereign hand, which means one of the greatest challenges of our faith is to actually echo the words of Job: “Shall I only accept the good from the Lord and not the bad. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed, be the name of the Lord.”
It's through Solomon, that God invites us to see the world through his sovereignty. And right now, if we just stepped back for a second, doesn't it feel like their gears turning, and at work in the world that are far bigger than any of us to do anything about it or any earthly power? Doesn't it feel like we're all along for the ride? And that little steering wheel that we thought we had is really just a plastic wheel on those plastic cars, on the carousel? And all notions of control are laughable? It's because God is sovereign.
And doesn't all of that really just beg the question. Why? Why would God send calamity? Why would God send pestilence and plague to overtake the world? And that really is the million dollar question, isn't it? And in some ways to talk about such things is to talk about things in which we would never, ever possibly know the depths of or all the reasons as to why? But it doesn't mean that we don't know the most important why. Why would God allow all of this to happen?
Well, maybe in everything that I've just said so far about the sovereignty of God, wouldn't lead you to think that God's sovereignty is really just all about His power. That God's sovereignty is really just about recognizing that He is all powerful, and that He can do whatever He pleases and that's it. But that's not really the case. And that falls far too short of what we're supposed to see. We can't simply think about God's sovereignty in terms of His power.
We ultimately have to think about God's sovereignty in light of His purposes, which are what? It's to exalt the name of Christ above all things. So that every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess that He is Lord, so that He might be all in all. That through Him, God is reconciling all things, the entire world, every tribe, every tongue, every nation unto Himself, and through Him will one day fill the earth with His glory, like the waters covers the sea.
And when we forget that, when we forget God's sovereign purpose is in Christ, then we will navigate this whole situation no differently than the rest of the world. We will feel just as lost, just as confused, as frustrated, as hopeless as answerless. And we will feel overwhelmed, and that will cause us to turn inward, and to retreat. And life then just simply comes to trying to get by. But, when we remember God's sovereignty and see the heartache of the world through His purposes in Christ, that points us to the cross.
It points us to the cross, and it's the cross that tells us the most important why. It's because the cross shows us that God is not distant from the pain and suffering of the world. It's the cross that reminds us how God actually works. It's through the tragedy of sin and suffering and death, that God brings new life. It's through the tragedy and heartache, and sadness and pain of this world that He awakens it and offers more to the world. And we live in a world that is desperately searching for more.
And when we look around at the world around us, we need to remember God's sovereign purpose is in Christ, because what do we see?
Just think for a second about this pandemic and all of its effects, the isolation that it's created, the families that have been separated, the lives that have been lost, the livelihoods that have been ruined. Think about the division that it's exposed in our nation, that only disturbingly gets worse and worse. Think about all the anger that you've seen poured out online which more often than not is really just fear, couched and clothed, and coming out as rage. Think about how lost and confused people feel because they don't have a family the way that you do. They don't have a church to turn to in times of distress, and they don't have a place that they can go, because right now they don't know who to trust anymore, amidst the flood of information that comes across their eyes each and every day.
Austin Rylaarsdam this week told me about a co-worker he had a conversation with on Zoom. She lives by herself, and said that she has not had human touch since March. And how she's just desperate for a hug. My mom was telling me about a conversation she had with the physical therapists that works at the nursing home where my grandmother lives. And that physical therapist said that most of the time, when she just walks into the residence room, they just burst into tears. Because they're so happy to not be alone.
I've heard teachers say that their heart breaks when Zoom allows them to see how their students live. Because they can see into their bedroom, and see that all they have is a mattress on the floor, while they hear arguing going on in the background. A new study on mental health just came out that said depression is reaching a level that has never been reached. That same study said that one in four people, between the ages of 18 to 24, has contemplated taking their own life in the last 30 days.
I've talked with three counselors over the last four weeks. They said they have more people coming to them now than they have had in each of their 30-year careers. Then Google just released a report that said that since March searches for prayer have increased over 50%. And it's Google searches that tell you something. Because it tells you what people look for when they're by themselves, and they're alone. And this pandemic has revealed and laid bare a spiritual starvation that is a measurable.
And we need to remember the sovereign purposes of God, in Christ. We need to remember what God is doing through him, and through us, because it reminds us that God uses the pain and, suffering in the world to finally get the world to look up. Which means that it's not enough for us as a church to simply be satisfied and happy that we get to gather and get together again. It's not enough for us to be satisfied that we get back our little bit of normal while the world burns.
We just finished a sermon series on the seven letters to the churches in Revelation. And if we learned anything, it's that just because we gather, does not mean that Jesus is pleased with us. How we gather, why we gather, for what we gather, is of utmost importance. And if we forget the sovereign purposes of God in Christ, then we gather in vain.
And we need to remember His sovereign purposes in Christ, when we look around at the Church, because what do we see?
We see a Church that needs to wake up. We see the nominalism that’s settled into American Christianity, and how one-third of active church goers no longer participates in either in-person or online worship services. One third is just gone. Worship was not about their need for Christ, it was negotiable.
And now we see churches that are having to face whether or not they'll even make it through the end of the year, because giving has just fallen off of a cliff.
We see a practical atheism that has gripped the Church. Because on the one hand, the church says, “You know, God is sovereign, God is in control, God's doing something.” But their real attention falls on what theologians call ‘secondary causes.’ The real attention, the real devotion, and the real passion falls on politics, party platforms, partisan identity, looking at politicians for hope and saying this, my friends, this all world is how, and the means by which we will be saved. Concerned about the plans and affairs of men, and never stopping and asking, what is God doing? What is God doing in the world?
And when I preached a few weeks ago on the letter to Sardis, I had a number of people that came up to me and said, and even in the weeks afterwards, and we had a conversation about how they had big plans for the quarantine, right? They had big plans because they wanted to make the most of the time. They wanted to focus on prayer, and Bible study, and get their spiritual life in order. And yet, very quickly, they found that it just fell by the wayside because they became so distracted, and consumed by other things. And they felt that sleep that falls upon us so quickly.
And isn't that strange and ironic? Because how many times over the years have we thought to ourselves, if only I had more time, if only I wasn't so busy, I'd be able to devote myself to the Lord. It'd be so much easier. And in the midst of all of this, God said, “Great. I'll give you all the time in the world. I'll give you all the time you need.” It may be, that it's for the purpose of realizing that our issue was never about time. Our issue was never about a schedule, and our issue was never about trying harder. The issue was recognizing that something within us needs to wake up.
Because we think we know what we need to do, we think we know what needs to be done, we think we know what we're supposed to do in order to get our spiritual lives in order, and to find more. And yet we find that it doesn't lead us to where we wanna go, because something in us needs to wake up. But the funny thing about being asleep, is that you don't know that you were actually asleep until you wake up. Which is why we need God to enter into the equation. We do not need more of us, we need more of Him.
And that's the very invitation we see in verse 14. He says, "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, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land. My eyes, and my heart will dwell with them".
But notice what lies at the heart of that invitation. It's not just to pray, it's to pray to seek His face. And that is a different kind of prayer altogether. That's the kind of prayer that awakens us, and invites us in to something more, how so?
Well notice that God doesn't invite His people to offer more sacrifices. He doesn't say, “Gimme some more bulls, heap some more goats up on the altar, make the fire bigger, sing louder, try harder to get my attention, you're not doing enough!” No, the invitation to seek His face is recognizing that we have to stop bringing Him more of what we have, because that's not what He desires. He desires us to bring Him our hearts. And prayer that seeks His face is a prayer that pursues Him in a way that says, “I actually have nothing to offer you other than my desire for you, because you are the more that I need, you are the more that I desire, and you are the more that I crave. It's you, it's you only.”
Offering more sacrifices on the altar is what pagan gods want. But not this God. This invitation is about recognizing He wants you, and puts us to a question, do we want Him? If my people pray.
And notice it, doesn't say that if my leaders pray, or if my priests pray, if my prayer warriors pray, if my righteous folk pray, He says, “If my people.” From the bottom up, and from the top down, if my people pray, that's collective, that's corporate, that's inclusive. That's you. That's me.
Do you struggle to pray because you think you aren't worthy? Do you struggle to pray because you feel like it doesn't come out very well? Do you struggle to pray because you feel like you are a nobody? What do you hear in this invitation? To seek the face of God, It means that we stop basing our prayer life on who we think we are, and we base it on who He is. On the God that wants to reveal Himself to you, the God that wants you to see His face, the God that wants you to see Him as He is.
Do you struggle to even know what to pray for? Do you struggle to even put it into words? Is this kind of prayer to seek His face that awakens us out of those rote, ritualistic prayers and awakens our imaginations for more of Him? Because we so easily get stuck in that ritualistic rhythm of heartless prayers, where we say, dear God thank you for this food, thank you for this day, watch over us, bless us, keep us amen. And yet it's in this kind of prayer when we begin to do it, we realize that all of those kinds of prayers are really just about orienting God towards us. But this kind of prayer that seeks His face is about us reorienting ourselves towards God and His desires and His promises and His purposes, and finding all of our more in Him.
Are you afraid of what's gonna happen to you? Does life feel really fragile right now? And you have all sorts of things that you want to ask of Him? Seeking His face is about putting that above all other desires, and all other requests. Because it's this kind of prayer that stops looking at all the wind and all the waves around you. And you find the face that causes you to walk on water. It's in His face that you find your Healer. It's in His face that you find your Creator. Your Master. Your Lord. And your Resurrector.
And He invites us to see Him and seek His face. And that invitation to seek His face comes with a promise. Because He says, "If my people pray, and seek my face, then what?" He says, "My eyes and my heart will be with them." God says, "I will dwell with you. You will see me, I will come to you".
The invitation is if my people pray, if my people seek my face, I will come down. The invitation is to pray God down.
And this sermon series is about accepting that invitation. And together we are entering into a season of prayer this fall, and we are going to seek His face. We're gonna accept the invitation and ask that God would show us the way. To open doors that can't be shut, to lead us in the way that He would have us go, to lay hold of all that it is that He has for us, and to recognize that God puts the invitation on the table to seek His face and have a future that's far more shaped by prayer, than it would have been otherwise.
And so, as we enter into the season, we're going to ask God to reveal Himself to us. We're gonna pray for His presence to come down into our church, into our community, into our homes, into our lives, into our hearts. We're gonna pray from the top down, and pray from the bottom up. We're gonna pray corporately, communally, in your families, individually, and give you those opportunities to seek His face. But doesn't all of that come back to the question: are we willing? Do we want more? If my people pray, and we are going to pray.
And we're gonna pray very simply, we're gonna ask God for more, we're gonna ask God to move, and we're gonna ask God to reveal His glory among us.
And however He chooses to do so is really up to Him. He just invites us into that unknown, armed with a simple prayer. Lord, let me see your face. Lord, let me see your face. Lord, let me see your face. Lord, let me see your face. Because that's really what you want. It's really what you need. And He invites you to have that prayer on your lips day and night, and as often as you think of it. Lord, let me see your face. And in that He invites us into the unknown, and whatever adventure lies ahead.
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church, and in Jesus Christ throughout all generations, forever and ever.
Let's pray.
