Okay, our text, 2 Chronicles 7.14, I'm beginning a new series of sermons that I'm calling, Bringing Back the Scattered Sheep. And before you can do that, you've got to go step by step, and today is the first step. And we're using 2 Chronicles 7.14. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and sink my face and turn from their wicked ways, then, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." Now, so we pray, Father, this is your word. This is your message. I'm just the messenger, but your message. And I pray, Father, that thy Holy Spirit would take over and make this a personal conversation between you and each person under the sound of my voice today, in Jesus Christ's precious and holy name. Amen. As I said, we're beginning a series of messages that I believe the Lord started laying on my heart a few months ago. I found that many places that I go and talk to people, and I'm not just talking about preachers, but rather people in general set in the pew, work out there, and so forth. Some are saved, some are not saved. But talking to people in general, they seem to say that it seems like something is going to happen to this country, and they say here in the South, it ain't good. And people are just expecting something to happen, something of a gigantic, just a tremendous life-changing experience may have to happen to this country. I just get that flavor wherever I go. And you look at this country, got homosexual marriage. You've got people just moving in and living together. You've got, uh, other sins going on. Christians gamble now as if it was nothing. And, and you have all these things that are going on across the country in God's house with God's people. And, and they seem not to care. And you wonder when they kind of look at you as if, what's wrong with you? Why do you have a problem with that? And it makes you realize they may not, although they name the name of Christ, have the spirit of God in their life. A majority of our public schools today will not allow the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, let alone prayer there. Well, at the same time of trashing our Christianity, they will substitute secularism, humanism, Islamic priorities, and a host of other things. But I find that when something deep within us is indicating to many people that there is something definitely wrong here and something is going to happen, We better wake up. Now, one of the problems, and now I'll start where it happens is in the pulpit. We have just simply, and forgive me for saying this, if you don't, you know, it'd be a little hard, but we just have too many panty-waisted preachers who are more interested in pleasing the world than they are in speaking the truth. As a result, it's always at the expense of the holiness and the righteousness of God. James chapter 3 verse 1 says, My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. Look, preachers can avoid that and they can really enjoy some popularity this side of heaven. But if they're saved, they're at the bottom of the rung, ashamed at His appearing. Just understand that. We look at our nation. And we find that today, uh, a lot of Christians are praying for their favorite candidates to be elected to office on the federal, the state or the local levels. Oh, let me tell you what my prayer is. My prayer is simply this. God don't give us what we deserve. Give us someone that'll help the local church and this country to go back to those things that are right. I'm concerned that too many Christians are thinking, reading, and contemplating more about the election and things of that nature than we are about the Lord, His work, and the souls of men. We're not thinking about the judgment seat of Christ. As a result, although the people may still meet in those places, the local churches of America seem to be filled with scattered sheep. Now I have a pet peeve and it may surprise you what my pet peeve is, but one of my pet peeves is that second chronicle seven 14. We read that before revival meetings. We read that before, uh, patriotic services and, and, and patriotic meetings out there that, uh, it seems like that's the number one verse. Matter of fact, as becoming almost as familiar from the old Testament is John three 16 is from the new Testament among Christians. and they read it and everybody likes to say, amen, hey, this is great. If my people, which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sins and I will heal their land. Boy, that's a great promise. And yet I wonder if we really grasp what the verse is saying. The verse was actually written when the temple had been completed and Solomon had prayed and he said, Lord, if our people, they go into sin and they go into captivity or other bad things happen to them, if they'll turn back towards this house and pray and so forth, we ask that you would forgive them and heal and so forth. And so the Lord lays it out to them. Okay, I'm gonna answer your prayer, Solomon. But it says, if my people, themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways. Then, then." Boy, that's an important word in that verse, then. Because the idea is not until then. And let's not miss out on that. Now, although that was for Israel, I believe the principle that is there does apply for today because God changes not. And there, this is something God desires for anyone who would name His name. But let's be clear on the verse. That's what I want to do today to start this series is just look at this one verse. And the first step for us is seen there at the beginning. If my people, which are called by my name shall humble themselves. We live in America. We live in a society that says it takes a village. to raise a child. Now, the way they used to say that is your child is a ward of the state. We didn't say it here. They said that over in Russia and China when communism took over. But now for Americans, they rephrase it so that it sounds better. But nonetheless, it's the same thing about a village raising the child. In other words, the child doesn't belong to you that you had. You're responsible for anything it does wrong, If you try to correct it biblically, you're in trouble. And when the church and when Christians give into political correctness of the hour, then we begin to appease the sodomites. We begin to allow misbehaving children to continue in their ways. We'll condemn anyone that will take the strap to their own child and whip the backside as the Bible tells them to do. as if God is stupid and an idiot, and you have all wisdom. Well, I remember when they did that, and now, boy, aren't the streets more safe now? Isn't it great how safe it is in America now? And around the world, since they cut out spanking and training your children, isn't that wonderful? I don't know, if you go to a schoolhouse, Biggest problem my day, I think, was two things. I think chewing gum in class, boy, you got in trouble for that. And then you also got in trouble if you got caught. Now, they didn't usually get caught, but if you opened the bathroom door, smoke would billow out. Guys smoked cigarettes there in the high school. And I tell you what, if you just walked in the bathroom three times a day, you'd have a nicotine fit by that night. And there's always a guy standing at the door. Here comes a man. Here comes a man. All of a sudden, you'd hear a bunch of flushing going on. And a teacher would walk in there and say, has anybody smoking in here? No. All right. And that was the extent of it. Now, they wish that was their only problem. That's what's happened today. And so as a result, we see that things that go against that, which is biblical, that which is moral, that which is ethical. This is, I mentioned earlier, adultery moving in and living together without marriage, drinking and gambling. How many Christians are doing the lottery? How many Christians are running off, uh, to the various places to gamble. And we've become a hedonistic society. Christians aren't realizing that that is worldliness. And that God says that friendship with the world is enmity, that means to be actively against God, even as a Christian. Friendship with the world in God's sight. Now you're not the judge, God is. And He says that's to be actively against God, like an enemy. Friendship with the world, enmity with God whose whoever therefore would be a friend of the world is the enemy of God James chapter 4 in verse 4 You see for the Christian. He is to live separated unto God and Separated from the world, but it seems like the opposite is what's going on when we have humbled ourselves and We think that we're doing pretty good, but the truth is what we've humbled ourselves before is Belial, Bel, and all the false gods of ecumenicalism, Catholicism, and contemporary religious worship, and the lifestyle evangelism and life of Christians today, or the Calvinist attitudes that free us from being a witness to this world. Religious marketing. strategies that take us from obedience to the word of God and faith and that allowing the spirit of God to lead us to depending upon the skills of technology or technological marketers in religion. So that we're no longer led by the spirit of God. We're led by a magazine. We read that tells us how to do it next and say, Hey, there are some successful people from that. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't think any of those souls in hell is going to think they're successful. whatever. But most Christians don't realize that humbling yourself before God is full surrender to the will and Word of God. Israel was to surrender to the law, we are to surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord. And we're to live separated from this world. We're to live dedicated unto Him. See, when we say humble ourselves, we simply don't hear that being pointed out in these revival meetings and in these so-called patriotic meetings, but that's what's behind it. Don't expect revival when we're not willing to do the first step. When we're not willing to humble ourselves and to be consistent, consistent, So what do you mean, consistent? That as Christians, we're there, we're faithful. If it's Sunday morning, we're there. If it's Sunday evening, we're there. If it's Wednesday evening, we're there. If there's something to be done, we're there. We can be depended upon. Faithful. Be willing to inconvenience yourself for all of these things. Special meetings, what have you. It just doesn't fit in to what I want to do. Then, my friend, you don't want revival. You know, we've asked you to, over a period of time, to invite at least two new people every week that you've never invited before to meet your track. You know, some haven't been involved in that. what that's like saying, Jesus I really do thank you for dying on the cross for my sin, but I think it's very stupid for me to have you tell me to go and take and let other people get saved from that and maybe have a chance to hear the Gospel if they too could go to Heaven instead of. I'd rather they just go ahead and go on to Hell and burn forever and ever. You say a preacher wouldn't say that. Well you say it with your actions you see. We say it with our actions. We say, preacher, that makes me mad. I hope it does, because we're trying to speak the truth and love and realize that your love is to be for the Lord, not for the flesh, for the will of God, not for the unrighteousness and the culture of this world. See, we've got to get our priorities going in the right directions. And so we need to witness, we need to witness by word of mouth, let alone give out a track, but too often it's too humbling. We're afraid that people will think that we are some kind of fanatic, and they'll think negatively of us. And if we're more concerned about what the world will think instead of what God will think, we're on the wrong path. We're on the wrong path. And that first step is not being fulfilled, so don't expect God to answer the prayer of 2 Chronicles 7.14. because it has to work in the lives of Christians. Now, let me add again, I'm not mad, although I ought to be, because I ought to be jealous enough for my Lord, but rather I am burdened. Burdened for God's glory. Because it's been lost in the local churches of this land. As a result of God's glory being lost, I'm burdened for the church as well and for my country. We've got to humble ourselves. Secondly, we need to pray. I saw a sign the other day that said, America's only hope is prayer. But Muslims in America pray five times a day. Mormons pray. Catholics pray to Mary. On we could go. I don't call that hope. Once you humble yourself, you next confess your sin. See, we don't mind confessing America's sin. Lord, they have justified homosexual marriage. Oh, Lord. And we feel like we're confessing our sin. No, we're not. So don't expect, don't expect God to answer that prayer of 2 Chronicles 7-14 if you're not willing to confess your own sin and forsake it. You see, you confess your sin, which is the context of 2 Chronicles chapters 6 and 7. It's about our sin, the punishment on it, and then people turning to God. to be restored into a right fellowship. It's an idea of confessing and repenting. As a matter of fact, 1 John 1, 7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Walking in the light is walking in holiness. It's walking in separation from the world. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1 says, therefore having these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh. spirit see body and spirit belong to God perfecting holiness in the fear of God you see the flesh refers to the things that we do in this body that do not honor Christ immodesty in the way you dress the tattoos, the piercings, the social drinking, the drunkenness, the pornography, the nudity on TV, the social media, the rock music, religious and world music, the drugs, and on we could go. And the problem is that people who named the name of the Holy Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, people who named that name will get more upset with me for preaching that than they will with the sin itself. But you better remember when judgment begins in the house of God that you heard it. The Romans, they had bread and circuses to keep their masses passive and unthinking. We have electronic gadgets and, and, and entertainment and a, and a mixture of drugs and adultery and pornography and, and on it goes. And it's in the local church. And so we see a declining local church declining in holiness and the righteousness of God. And for some reason, nothing, we don't think God's going to judge. We have a tendency to think God's going to judge our country, but judgment begins at the house of God. Again, on my watch, I cannot fiddle while my country burns into moral, spiritual and ethical disaster. that God will have to come and pour out His judgment in such a way that it would make 9-11, that it would make Katrina, that it would make Ivan look like it was child's play in comparison. You see, many people denied that that was God's judgment in those situations. So maybe God has to do so much more until the local churches in this country comes to its senses and says, you know what? I need to do something about my sin. We need to admit that we're low down sinners who need the mercy of God. We must repent or we're in trouble. Again, we must walk in the light as he is in the light and then we'll have fellowship one with another. We'll have fellowship with those that walk in the light. And so the rest of her first John one seven says, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. The shed blood of Jesus was necessary for the payment for all sin for all time. See his blood, not only cleansed me of my sin in salvation, but I sin since I've been saved and that blood still cleanses. First John 1 9, if we confess our sins, if conditional, if we confess our sins, sins, because we do sins, not just sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Read Daniel chapter nine sometime, and you'll see that Daniel confesses the sin, not only of his people, but of himself. When you confess sin, it means that you're saying the same thing as God. That is, you stand against it. And you need him to give you power and deliverance from it. He can. That's why 1 Corinthians 6, 11, after listing a host of vile sins as vile or more vile than I've already mentioned, says in such were some of you. They overcame without counseling. They overcame in the power of God. There is still power in the blood of Jesus Christ. Too many Christians are unable to humble themselves. They have not walked an aisle in years. They won't even come to pray for a soul, even if it's one of their own children, to pray for a wayward soul. They won't pray for revival. They won't confess their sin of self-righteousness because they don't think they're self-righteous. they'll stand back in their pew and they'll just say oh there's no problem or I'll just take care of it back here. You think you're getting the Holy Spirit off your back what you're doing is you're lying to yourself and God and you deceive only your own self as the Bible says. My people humbling themselves and pray, do you see that people and themselves, those terms, people, themselves, goes beyond just individual, but it shows a group, the local church. I just don't want Central Baptist Church to be the cause of judgment. because I know judgment begins at the house of God. Step three, humble, pray, then seek my face. If you're gonna seek God's face, you'll need to go to the word of God. What does that involve? That involves praying before you read it and praying while you read it. That's the first step in it. And then, Ask God to help you to understand it. Ask God to show you himself, to show you the person of Christ as you read through it. You know, that's what Jesus did with the disciples. After being with them three and a half years, he still took them back to the book of Moses. That starts with Genesis. And he went through the Psalms, all those poetic books. He went through the prophets. He went through all of that, teaching the things concerning himself. There's so much we miss in reading the Bible that shows us the person of Jesus Christ. Ask God to show that to us. Ask God to show you the things that lie hidden to the carnal mind. Things that The world would read and just say, well, yeah, this, they said this because the culture that day, no, let him speak to your heart and show you things that they don't know. Ask him to reveal to you his will for your daily life so that you may number your days and apply it. It's not unusual for me to get emails saying, I heard you preaching. You need to read this book. You need to read that book. Now you, my usual standard reply is I actually read 66 books in two volumes, old and new, you know, that gets them mad. They act like through their anger that the books that their professor so-and-so wrote is much more important. What we read in the Bible. You know, it's funny, too, because a lot of these Protestants, a lot of these Baptists think, all right, we're Catholics. They don't say we're Catholics, but you know, the Catholic Church years ago said you can't read the Bible because you don't understand it, don't have the ability to understand it. The priest has to tell you what it means. And now we find these churches doing the same thing because they're afraid that if you do read it and begin to understand it, you may see the problems that are in the church. that are in your own life and say, we need to do something. We ought to have that desire in Philippians 3.10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. But we can only know that through this book of his. Then we need to read it with the intention to meditate on it. Think on what you've read as you go throughout the day. That's why I like to read first thing in the morning most of the time. Read on it as you go through the day. Think on it as you go through the day. Allow God to speak to your heart. Ask God to prevent Satan from coming in and deceiving your mind about the scriptures, making it a private interpretation. That is something that would contradict the rest of the scripture. Don't let Satan get in there. Then every day read it with the intention of whatsoever. He says, I will do. And then you set out to do it, have it scheduled as a daily part of your life. Don't be one that's a starter, but not a finisher, especially in the will of God and ministry. And then one final part to this passage is and turn from their wicked ways. Now we mentioned a host of sins that'll make a lot of people mad. Uh, cause a lot of religious people to get mad, even who may or may not need to be saved. It'll cause them to get angry, but let me just tell you something. You can add to that list. Gossip, anger, fault visors, fault finders, false accusers. grudge holders, the unharmonious relationship between a husband and a wife because a husband won't be the head or a wife will not be submitted. On we could go. Let me just give you an example of it. Somebody's child, I mentioned tattoos and piercings, and somebody's child does that. You know what people do? They attack the parents. And there are times I want to say, well, did you live in that those parents home with them and watch them have the disc? No, you weren't there. How do you know this? You see, they like to gossip. They like to run down their kids. They like to run down everything, say everything they did wrong. And they weren't even there. So what is it? the sin of sowing discord which the Bible likens to an abomination just like it likens homosexuality to an abomination hmm how do you like your sin being viewed that way I don't like it don't view my sin in that manner but God does God does listen You're getting spiritual leadership in a church in any manner, whether you're a Sunday school teacher, youth director, or you're just on the job. You don't really have a position in church, but they know you're a Christian and you're a witness. You're going to have critics. You're going to have people tell you how you can do things better. You're going to have people tell you how you're doing things wrong. You're going to have people telling you how the way it should be. Why? Because their heart is not right with God and what you are doing to serve God is a conviction to them. And they don't even know what it is. They don't know it. They don't know it. Now, if we don't turn from our wicked ways and realize those things are wicked, will only from time to time have religious feelings, not a real relationship with Jesus Christ. And we will not see what our text said about hearing from heaven and about healing this land. It's not going to happen. You won't see the cleansing because you see, before we can see that verse fulfilled, we have personal responsibility before God to do the first step. Hey, you say, well, preach, why would you preach something like that? Because I'm your pastor and I want you to appear before heaven unashamed. So I wouldn't be ashamed. No, not in this flesh you wouldn't be, but when you stand before God and see his holiness, you'd be greatly ashamed. Then you'd have to be honest. I don't want that for you. I don't want that for you at all, but we've got to take the personal responsibility. Then he'll forgive. Then he'll heal. Then he'll hear. But you know what? Personal responsibility is also in salvation. Jesus said in Luke 13, 3, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. That puts personal responsibility on an individual. Acts 17, 30, God commandeth all men everywhere to repent because he's appointed a day in which you'll judge the world. How? By that man whom he hath appointed also he's confirmed and shown he's the right one. This is the one in that he raised him from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ. You've got to say, I'm a sinner. I want my sin cleansed. I want to have a new heart, a new life in Jesus Christ, and He'll do it because He says, Him that cometh to me I will know wise, Castile. I'm not asking you today, do you have a religion? I'm not asking you today, have you been baptized? I'm not even asking you today if you said the right words in prayer. I'm asking you today, did you come to Jesus Christ, realizing you're a sinner, you're headed to hell, and knowing that only Christ could save you, you couldn't save yourself, it wasn't you plus Jesus doing the work, Jesus did it all. And you're giving him your life. You see, a lot of people believe what I said up to that point, but I'm saying, wait a minute, you're making a commitment to him that's the same as the commitment of marriage. Marriage is a picture of salvation. Well, I didn't do that. Why don't you get saved today? Get saved, make a commitment to Christ. You know what? Jesus may mess up your lifestyle, but if he does, it'll be for good. It'll be for good. Will you give him your heart and life today? Let's bow our heads. Now, father, we're going to sing a hymn of invitation in just a moment. Never still, never. And Lord, that's what we need to be. Because this world is a wicked world. The darkness grows. But Jesus still saves. Lord, I didn't see any hand go up today. Say I'm not sure if I died that heavens my home, but I saw that there were some hands that didn't go up at all. And Lord, one day they'll stand before you and just have to say I wasn't concerned. Before they're casting that eternal lake of fire. Lord, help us as Christians, help me as a pastor, but as well as all of us here to humble ourselves, realize that we are filled with sin, we're filled with failure, we're filled with not walking according to your word, and help us, Lord. And I pray that you would just help each and every believer here to get a burden for the glory of God. And therefore, they'll have a burden for souls. They'll have a burden for this country. They'll have a burden for the holiness and righteousness of God. Help us to get that burden. Ask God to cleanse these sins from our lives. And we'd ask this in Jesus Christ's precious and holy name. Amen.