Speaker 1: There is only one solution. It's not a political solution.
Speaker 1: It's not an economic solution. It's not an educational solution.
Speaker 1: It's not a psychological solution. It is a spiritual solution.
Speaker 1: Our hearts must be changed by God, and only he
Speaker 1: can change hearts. We need a national healing. And you
Speaker 1: know what? I agree 100%. And I've actually thought this
Speaker 1: for years, that our nation is And many nations need healing.
Speaker 1: I immediately thought of Psalm 60, where David cries out
Speaker 1: to God in a national time of conflict in those days.
Speaker 1: And in Psalm 60, verse two, listen to this. It's
Speaker 1: in the New Living and in the Living Bible. David
Speaker 1: says this, you have shaken this nation and split it open. Now, Lord,
Speaker 1: heal the cracks before it completely collapses. That is a
Speaker 1: verse for our time. Lord, heal the cracks before it
Speaker 1: completely collapses. In the message translation, that verse says, heal
Speaker 1: the breaks because everything is coming apart at the seams.
Speaker 1: And in the next verse, Psalm 60, verse 3 says,
Speaker 1: It says, you have shown your people desperate times. We're
Speaker 1: staggering like we're drunk on wine. What a picture. But
Speaker 1: then verse four and verse five gives us some hope.
Speaker 1: And it says this, but you, talking about God, but
Speaker 1: you have given us a banner to rally to. All
Speaker 1: those who love truth will rally to it. And then
Speaker 1: you can deliver your beloved people. Use your strong right
Speaker 1: arm to rescue us. Now, anytime you see the phrase,
Speaker 1: but you, in the Bible, and it's talking about God,
Speaker 1: you can get ready for a good dose of hope.
Speaker 1: But God, or but you. Because God's word is filled
Speaker 1: with examples of how God heals hurts, heals brokenness, heals conflict,
Speaker 1: and actually heals a broken nation. He did it many,
Speaker 1: many times with the nation of Israel. And there is
Speaker 1: a clear pattern. When you look at this book and
Speaker 1: you study this book, there is a clear pattern. And
Speaker 1: there is even a specific promise that God gives us
Speaker 1: in the nation that we live in and when it's
Speaker 1: in trouble. Now, it's not a promise to any specific nation.
Speaker 1: The United States is never mentioned in this book, neither
Speaker 1: is Germany or Argentina, Philippines or China, where other Saddleback
Speaker 1: members live. We're an international church. But it is a
Speaker 1: specific promise to the people of God. It's a promise
Speaker 1: to Christian believers who live in any country. And that's
Speaker 1: what we're gonna look at today, how God heals a
Speaker 1: broken nation. 3,000 years ago, God made a promise to
Speaker 1: Solomon at the dedication of the new temple in Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: And as I said, it's not a promise to America
Speaker 1: or to any other specific nation, but it is a
Speaker 1: promise to God's people anywhere. And it gives us a
Speaker 1: specific path to the healing of any nation. 2 Chronicles 7,
Speaker 1: 14 is the verse I'm talking about. And it goes this,
Speaker 1: you've heard this verse many times, but we're gonna tear
Speaker 1: it apart word by word today. If my people, if
Speaker 1: my people, he's not talking to politicians. If my people
Speaker 1: who are called by my name will humble themselves and
Speaker 1: pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,
Speaker 1: then That's the path that here's the promise. Then I
Speaker 1: will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sins
Speaker 1: and I will heal their land. Now with every promise
Speaker 1: of God, there's always a premise. There are conditions, there
Speaker 1: are requirements. And that's what we're gonna look at today.
Speaker 1: You know, this nation, along with many, many other nations
Speaker 1: needs a miraculous healing. Right now we need healing in
Speaker 1: our culture. We need healing in our government. We need
Speaker 1: healing in our economy. We need healing in our businesses.
Speaker 1: We need healing in our schools, in our cities, in
Speaker 1: our families. We need healing in our marriages, in our hearts.
Speaker 1: We need healing everywhere. And the good news is that
Speaker 1: the wounds that we can see around us today are
Speaker 1: not fatal and healing is available. So what's it gonna take?
Speaker 1: What's it gonna take to turn things around? How does
Speaker 1: God heal a broken nation? Well, in 2 Chronicles 7, 14,
Speaker 1: the verse we just read, God gives us, as I said,
Speaker 1: the pathway and the promise. He gives us four prerequisites
Speaker 1: or conditions for national healing. And then, and by the way,
Speaker 1: it's not just for national healing. This can heal relationships.
Speaker 1: You got a broken relationship? Do these four things. It
Speaker 1: can heal a relationship. It can have personal healing in
Speaker 1: your own life. So let's look at them. Number one,
Speaker 1: first condition for healing. We must humbly confess our sins.
Speaker 1: If my people who are called by my name will
Speaker 1: humble themselves. Now, again, this is not a promise for everybody.
Speaker 1: It's a promise for followers of God, followers of Christ.
Speaker 1: If my people called by my name, you call yourself
Speaker 1: a Christian, you're called by Christ's name. If my people
Speaker 1: who are called by my name will humble themselves. The
Speaker 1: number one cause of all our problems. is pride, arrogance, self-sufficiency,
Speaker 1: thinking we don't need God. We think we're God. We
Speaker 1: don't even think about consulting God in much of the
Speaker 1: time in what we're doing. James 4, 6 says, God
Speaker 1: opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.
Speaker 1: And so we start with the humble humility of confessing
Speaker 1: our sins to God. First John 1.8 says, if we
Speaker 1: claim we're not sinning, we deceive ourselves and the truth
Speaker 1: is not in us. It's self-deception for me to look
Speaker 1: at the sins of everybody else, worry about the sins
Speaker 1: of all my enemies, worry about the sins of all
Speaker 1: the people I disagree with and not think about me.
Speaker 1: You've heard the phrase, hate the sin, love the sinner,
Speaker 1: love the sinner, hate the sin. I got a better
Speaker 1: one for you. Love the sinner and hate your sin.
Speaker 1: Love the sinner and hate my sin. I should hate
Speaker 1: my sin. I shouldn't worry about hating everybody else's sin.
Speaker 1: Let me worry about just hating the sin in my
Speaker 1: own life. See, the problem is instead of practicing humility,
Speaker 1: we spend more time. You might write this down. The problem,
Speaker 1: the first of these four problems that we're looking at
Speaker 1: is that we spend more time accusing others and excusing ourselves, right?
Speaker 1: than we spend practicing humility. We spend more time accusing
Speaker 1: others and excusing ourselves than we do practicing humility. Now
Speaker 1: let me show you some verses where God talks about
Speaker 1: this tendency. James 4.12, God gave us his laws so
Speaker 1: he alone can rightly judge us. God is the only
Speaker 1: one who has the right to judge us. And he
Speaker 1: alone has the right to save or destroy. So who
Speaker 1: do you think you are to judge and condemn your neighbor? Hmm.
Speaker 1: I don't have a right to judge you. You don't
Speaker 1: have a right to judge me. The Bible says God
Speaker 1: is the only judge and lawgiver. Romans 2, 3 says this.
Speaker 1: So when you, a mere human, pass judgment on others,
Speaker 1: and yet you do the same similar sins, how do
Speaker 1: you think you're going to escape God's judgment? We often
Speaker 1: try to take the focus off of our failures and
Speaker 1: our sins and our mistakes by pointing at everybody else.
Speaker 1: But as the old saying goes, when you're pointing a
Speaker 1: finger at somebody else, I got three of them pointing
Speaker 1: right back at me. 1 Peter 4, 17, for it
Speaker 1: is time for judgment to begin. Everybody's going, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: judge those people, God. Judge those people. Well, let's read
Speaker 1: the rest of the verse. For it is time for
Speaker 1: judgment to begin and it must begin with us. Judgment
Speaker 1: must start with the family of God. Did you know that?
Speaker 1: If God's gonna judge America or any other nation, he's
Speaker 1: gonna start with the Christians in it. He's gonna start
Speaker 1: with those who claim his name. I call myself a Christian,
Speaker 1: a Christian, a little Christ. The family of God, a
Speaker 1: judgment has to start. If it's gonna start anywhere, change
Speaker 1: is gonna start, it's gonna start in the church. Not
Speaker 1: in politics, not in anything else. Proverbs 28, 13, people
Speaker 1: who try to cover up their sins will not succeed.
Speaker 1: Why can't we learn that verse? The coverup's always worse
Speaker 1: than the sin. People who try to cover up their
Speaker 1: sins will not succeed, but if they confess and forsake them,
Speaker 1: they will receive mercy. So the first step to any
Speaker 1: kind of healing, the first step to any kind of recovery,
Speaker 1: national or anything else, in your home, In your marriage
Speaker 1: is humble confession. That's the first step. So let me
Speaker 1: just be frank. Let me ask you a question. Do
Speaker 1: you want to be healed? Do you want your family
Speaker 1: to be healed? Do you want your marriage to be healed?
Speaker 1: Do you want your nation to be healed? Then you
Speaker 1: must take the hard first step of humble confession. If
Speaker 1: my people will humble themselves James 5, 16, confess your
Speaker 1: sins to each other and pray for each other so
Speaker 1: that you may be healed. If you're taking notes, circle
Speaker 1: the phrase each other. Confess to each other. Pray for
Speaker 1: each other. Write this down. I need others to help
Speaker 1: me change. I need others to help me change. You
Speaker 1: can't change simply by yourself. If you could, you would,
Speaker 1: but you can't, so you won't. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of things in your life you don't like about you,
Speaker 1: and you've tried to change them, but they don't change. Why?
Speaker 1: Because God has wired the world and wired the universe
Speaker 1: in a way that we only change with the help
Speaker 1: of others. That's why we have recovery groups, Saddleback, and
Speaker 1: support groups at Saddleback, and small groups at Saddleback, and
Speaker 1: online groups. And if you wanna be a part of
Speaker 1: an online group, we literally have... I don't know, seven, 8,000
Speaker 1: small groups spread out all over America. We'll help you
Speaker 1: get in one. But he says, confess your faults to
Speaker 1: each other and you will be healed. Revealing your feeling
Speaker 1: is the beginning of healing. So here's your homework. Make
Speaker 1: sin list. This week, sit down and say, Lord, show
Speaker 1: me anything in my life that's unpleasing to you. And
Speaker 1: be specific. Don't just say, forgive me for all my sins. No,
Speaker 1: make a list. Be specific. Jealousy there. If it's gossip,
Speaker 1: write it down. If it's slander, write it down. If
Speaker 1: it's impatience, write it down. If it's anger, outburst, write
Speaker 1: it down. And then confess it. Cross them all out
Speaker 1: and burn the paper. That's the first step. We must pray.
Speaker 1: We must humbly confess our sins. Number two, we must
Speaker 1: not only confess humbly, we must pray sincerely. Pray sincerely.
Speaker 1: This isn't mouthing you know, prayers that we've prayed all
Speaker 1: our lives. It's praying from the heart. If my people
Speaker 1: who are called by my name shall humble themselves and
Speaker 1: pray and pray. This is not half-hearted praying. This is
Speaker 1: not thoughtless praying. This is not meaningless praying. This is not,
Speaker 1: now I lay my down to sleep, bless the gift
Speaker 1: and the giver. Thanks for this food and bless it
Speaker 1: to our bodies. Not ritual praying. It's praying from the heart.
Speaker 1: Sincere praying is authentic praying. It's passionate praying. It's sincere.
Speaker 1: It's even desperate praying. God, you gotta help us now.
Speaker 1: We're in deep trouble. We need this healing now. Example
Speaker 1: in the Bible is Jacob who says to God, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna let go of you till you bless me. Now,
Speaker 1: what's the problem? How did we get ourselves in such
Speaker 1: a mess? I'll tell you how we got ourselves in
Speaker 1: such a mess. We spend more time complaining than we
Speaker 1: do praying. We spend more time complaining than we do praying.
Speaker 1: Praying changes things. Complaining, worrying, being anxious, griping, never changes anything. Now,
Speaker 1: this is not a new problem. This was a problem
Speaker 1: back in Hosea's days, years and years ago. Hosea chapter seven,
Speaker 1: verse 14 says this. They do not cry out to
Speaker 1: me with sincere hearts. Instead, they sit on their couches,
Speaker 1: and they wail. That word in Hebrew, wail, literally means
Speaker 1: complain loudly. It means I'm griping. How many times have
Speaker 1: you sat on your couch, looking at the television, griping
Speaker 1: about what's going on in your society, griping about what
Speaker 1: you see on the news, complaining about what's happening in
Speaker 1: the world? How much has that changed anything? How many
Speaker 1: times have you complained on social media? about what you
Speaker 1: see going on in our nation or our world or wherever.
Speaker 1: He says, they don't cry out to me sincerely. Instead,
Speaker 1: they sit on their couches and complain. Let me ask you,
Speaker 1: do you spend more time watching the news or on
Speaker 1: social media commenting about the news or in prayer talking
Speaker 1: to God about what's going on? One of them can
Speaker 1: change things. The other two, are worthless. Colossians 4.2, be earnest,
Speaker 1: that's sincere, and unwearied and steadfast in your prayers. This
Speaker 1: is the amplified translation. Be earnest and unwearied and steadfast
Speaker 1: in your prayers, being alert and intent in your prayers.
Speaker 1: In other words, I don't put my mind in neutral
Speaker 1: and just start mouthing off spiritual words. Be intent in
Speaker 1: your prayers with thanksgiving. She says, okay, how do I
Speaker 1: be more sincere in my prayer? by being more specific.
Speaker 1: How do you be more specific in your prayer? Write
Speaker 1: down a prayer list. Nothing becomes specific until you write
Speaker 1: it down. Then all of a sudden it becomes very,
Speaker 1: very specific. You know, when I was in college, I
Speaker 1: remember in my dorm room, I took a big piece
Speaker 1: of butcher paper and I covered my wall and on
Speaker 1: it I wrote the date, and then I would write
Speaker 1: my prayer request and then I would wait. And then
Speaker 1: I would, when it was answered, I'd write the answer
Speaker 1: down and I would write the date it was answered.
Speaker 1: And at the end of that year in college, I
Speaker 1: had on that wall, 56 specific answers to prayer. You
Speaker 1: think that built my faith? Of course it did. Why?
Speaker 1: Because I could see, I prayed specifically, I got specific
Speaker 1: answers and that built my faith. Ephesians 5, 18 says this,
Speaker 1: pray in the spirit. At all times, with all kinds
Speaker 1: of prayers, asking for all you need. To do this,
Speaker 1: you must always be ready and never give up. Always
Speaker 1: pray for all God's people. If you're taking notes, go
Speaker 1: back and circle all the all's and always in that verse.
Speaker 1: That's sincerity. Jesus said it like this. Luke 18, verse 1.
Speaker 1: Jesus said to his disciples, told them a story about
Speaker 1: how they should keep on praying and never give up.
Speaker 1: You're always doing one of those two things. One or
Speaker 1: the other. You're either praying or you're giving up. You're
Speaker 1: praying or you're giving up. You look at the world
Speaker 1: right now, you feel like giving up on it. You
Speaker 1: look at our society, you look at our government, you
Speaker 1: look at the paralysis of our government. Well, you can
Speaker 1: pray or you can give up. If you prayed as
Speaker 1: much as you worried, you'd have a lot less to
Speaker 1: worry about. So if you're serious about seeing our nation healed,
Speaker 1: it isn't gonna happen through the voting booth, the ballot box.
Speaker 1: It isn't gonna happen through politics. If you're serious about
Speaker 1: seeing our nation healed, here's your homework. Make a prayer list.
Speaker 1: Make a prayer list of some specific things you're going
Speaker 1: to ask God to do this year in your life,
Speaker 1: And in your family, in our church, in your church,
Speaker 1: in the whole world, in our nation, make a prayer list.
Speaker 1: This is your homework. Make a prayer list for this
Speaker 1: new year. Now we come to the third condition for
Speaker 1: national healing, or for that matter, any other kind of healing.
Speaker 1: It says, if my people, which are called by my name,
Speaker 1: shall humble themselves, that's one, humbly confess, and pray, pray
Speaker 1: with sincerity, sincerely, Then third, and seek my face. Here
Speaker 1: it is. We must seek God intensely. We confess our
Speaker 1: sins humbly and we pray sincerely and we seek God intensely.
Speaker 1: If people will humble themselves and pray and seek my face.
Speaker 1: Now this kind of seeking God is not some casual pastime.
Speaker 1: It's not a pursuit in your spare time Seeking God
Speaker 1: intensely means you're not doing it in your spare moments.
Speaker 1: It's not some low priority. Well, if I get the time,
Speaker 1: I'll seek God intensely. No, it must be a serious pursuit.
Speaker 1: It has to become your primary focus. Now, why should
Speaker 1: I make seeking God my primary focus in my life?
Speaker 1: Because in Hebrews 11, six, it says this, God rewards
Speaker 1: those who earnestly seek him. not in their spare time,
Speaker 1: but earnestly, sincerely seek him, intensely seek him, earnestly. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't become an Olympic athlete in your spare time. No,
Speaker 1: you gotta make it your primary motivation in life. Somebody
Speaker 1: asked me one time, do you play golf? I said, no.
Speaker 1: I said, I play at it, but I'm just not
Speaker 1: willing to invest the time to be good. To be
Speaker 1: a pro at anything requires intensity. So let me ask you,
Speaker 1: what does God want from you this year, in this
Speaker 1: brand new year? What does God want from me more
Speaker 1: than anything else in this new year? I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what he wants from you. He wants that you intensely
Speaker 1: seek him, that you seek him intensely. Not that you
Speaker 1: seek his blessing, not that you seek his gifts, not
Speaker 1: that you seek his favor, but that you seek him.
Speaker 1: You want to know him. Now, what I'm talking about
Speaker 1: right now is so rare among people. Most people seek
Speaker 1: God's blessing. They seek God's favor. They seek God's goodness.
Speaker 1: They don't seek God. Psalm 14 verse 2 says this,
Speaker 1: the Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human
Speaker 1: race and he looks to see if there is even
Speaker 1: one one person with real understanding who seeks for God.
Speaker 1: So I can't find people like that. Everybody wants my blessing.
Speaker 1: They don't want me. Very few people, the truth is
Speaker 1: very few people really seriously make knowing God the goal
Speaker 1: of their life. And that's why we get stuck in
Speaker 1: cycles year after year after year. What's the problem? Okay. Well,
Speaker 1: just like I told you, there's a problem with, you know,
Speaker 1: we do more complaining than we do praying. The problem
Speaker 1: is write this down. We spend more time seeking everything else.
Speaker 1: We spend more time seeking literally everything else, but God
Speaker 1: gives us a wonderful promise in Deuteronomy chapter four. Deuteronomy 4,
Speaker 1: 29 says this. If you seek the Lord, your God,
Speaker 1: you'll find him. You'll find him. If you look for
Speaker 1: him with all your heart, that's intensity. And with all
Speaker 1: your soul, that's intensity. And when you're in distress and
Speaker 1: all these things have happened to you, you will return
Speaker 1: to the Lord, your God, and you'll obey him. For
Speaker 1: he is a merciful God and he will not abandon
Speaker 1: or destroy you. That's a verse. for what's going on
Speaker 1: this past week and in the days ahead. How do
Speaker 1: I seek God with intensity? By making the knowing of
Speaker 1: him my first priority and my daily passion. Those of
Speaker 1: you who listened to the James series I taught, know
Speaker 1: that I taught you a little habit called HWFW and HWLW.
Speaker 1: His word, first word, his word, last word. That the
Speaker 1: first thing you do in the morning is you open
Speaker 1: up this book and you read a little bit of
Speaker 1: it till God speaks to you. It doesn't matter how
Speaker 1: long it is. You just read till God says something
Speaker 1: to you. And then you leave your Bible open by
Speaker 1: your bedside. When you get up in the morning, the
Speaker 1: first thing you do is not look at your phone.
Speaker 1: It's not look at the TV. It's not look at
Speaker 1: social media. It's look to the truth. Seek first his word.
Speaker 1: His word, first word. And you read and you just,
Speaker 1: you know, you pick a book like Psalms or Proverbs
Speaker 1: or Philippians and you read until God speaks to you
Speaker 1: and then you stop. Sometimes it's just one verse. You go,
Speaker 1: I need to think about that. And you read until
Speaker 1: something comforts you or something challenges you. Both of them
Speaker 1: will fill your soul. Comfort or challenge. And then you
Speaker 1: leave it open and at night, right before you go
Speaker 1: to bed, the last thing you do is you read again.
Speaker 1: His word, first word, his word, last word. And you
Speaker 1: just read till something speaks to you. And then you
Speaker 1: go to sleep with that on your mind. Matthew 6, 33,
Speaker 1: Jesus made this promise. Seek first his kingdom. Seek first
Speaker 1: his kingdom and his righteousness. And all these other things
Speaker 1: will be given to you as well. He says, I'll
Speaker 1: take care of the rest in your life. So, What
Speaker 1: do we do? We confess our sins humbly. We pray sincerely.
Speaker 1: We seek God intensely. Now we come to the fourth
Speaker 1: condition for a national healing or any other kind of healing.
Speaker 1: We must turn back to God completely. We turn back
Speaker 1: to God completely, not half-heartedly. If my people who are
Speaker 1: called by my name will humble themselves and pray and
Speaker 1: seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. He says,
Speaker 1: then I'll hear from heaven and I'll forgive their sins
Speaker 1: and I'll heal their land. Land. Now he says, turn
Speaker 1: from their wicked ways. You know, that word turn, the
Speaker 1: Old Testament's written in Hebrew, the New Testament's written in Greek.
Speaker 1: The word in Greek is the word metanoia, which literally
Speaker 1: means meta, to turn, and noia, to change your mind.
Speaker 1: Noia is noose, your neuron, your neuropathways comes from that.
Speaker 1: And it means, repentance simply means to change your mind.
Speaker 1: This is the way I used to think about that.
Speaker 1: This is the way I think about it now. Turn
Speaker 1: from your wicked ways, make a U-turn. Now, when I
Speaker 1: say that phrase wicked ways, I know what you're thinking.
Speaker 1: You're thinking about there are people out there who are
Speaker 1: wicked and there are people out there who are good
Speaker 1: and I wanna hang out with the good people and
Speaker 1: I wanna condemn and criticize and point my finger at
Speaker 1: the wicked people. It is a mistake. Listen, it's a
Speaker 1: mistake to categorize people as either good or wicked. Why?
Speaker 1: Because the reality is we all have wicked ways. I
Speaker 1: have wicked ways. You have wicked ways. The Bible says,
Speaker 1: not a just man upon the earth that doeth good
Speaker 1: always and sinneth not. The Bible says all have sinned
Speaker 1: and fallen short of the glory of God. And the
Speaker 1: Bible says, if we say, I have not sinned, we
Speaker 1: deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. We all
Speaker 1: need a savior. So guess what? I'm wicked. you're wicked.
Speaker 1: We're all in the same boat on that one there.
Speaker 1: Now here's the problem. I've given you a problem in
Speaker 1: each of these. Here's the problem. We don't see, we
Speaker 1: just don't see our own wicked ways. We don't see it.
Speaker 1: It's very clear. We can clearly see the wicked ways
Speaker 1: in other people. Oh, we can point them out quickly,
Speaker 1: but we don't see our own wicked ways. So let
Speaker 1: me just give you for your own personal edification and evaluation,
Speaker 1: one of the many lists of sins in scripture. It's
Speaker 1: 2 Timothy 3. In 2 Timothy 3, verses two to five,
Speaker 1: Paul gives us a laundry list of 19 specific wicked ways.
Speaker 1: He says, people are gonna be acting this way in
Speaker 1: the last days. I wanna recommend that you might wanna
Speaker 1: use this as a checklist for personal evaluation and confession.
Speaker 1: Here's what it says, 19 different things to check myself.
Speaker 1: It says that in the last days, it says people
Speaker 1: will be self-absorbed. Hmm, am I ever self-absorbed? Loving only themselves.
Speaker 1: They will be greedy for money. They will be boastful
Speaker 1: and arrogant. We've seen a lot of that in politics
Speaker 1: and we've seen that a lot in our culture. They
Speaker 1: will be insulting to God. rude and disrespectful, even to parents.
Speaker 1: They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unkind and unforgiving.
Speaker 1: They will enjoy slandering others. Enjoy slandering others. They will
Speaker 1: have no self-control. They will love violence and they'll be cruel.
Speaker 1: They will be cynical, despising anyone and anything that's good.
Speaker 1: they will betray those loyal to them. They will be
Speaker 1: reckless and rash. They will be inflated with self-conceit. They
Speaker 1: will love pleasure more than God. They'll claim to be spiritual,
Speaker 1: but they will reject the true power that could make
Speaker 1: them godly. You know, honestly, As I look over that
Speaker 1: list that I just read, written 2000 years ago, I
Speaker 1: am amazed at how accurately it describes our culture today,
Speaker 1: right now. How it describes our own hearts. How it
Speaker 1: describes the problems we're facing right now in this nation
Speaker 1: of America and in whatever nation you're living in. There
Speaker 1: is only one solution. It's not a political solution. It's
Speaker 1: not an economic solution. It's not an educational solution. It's
Speaker 1: not a psychological solution. It is a spiritual solution. Our
Speaker 1: hearts must be changed by God and only he can
Speaker 1: change hearts. Acts 3.19 says this, repent and turn to
Speaker 1: God so that your sins may be wiped out. This
Speaker 1: is wiped out. And so that, get this sentence, and
Speaker 1: so that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.
Speaker 1: Times of refreshing may come from the Lord. Friends, we
Speaker 1: desperately need those times of refreshing right now. After the
Speaker 1: COVID-19 pandemic has taken us a year and all of
Speaker 1: the other problems that we've seen in society, we need
Speaker 1: those times of refreshing right now. And God promises that
Speaker 1: if we do what he tells us to do, then
Speaker 1: he will do three things. Let's review the verse again.
Speaker 1: If my people, this is a promise to Christians, to believers.
Speaker 1: If my people who are called by my name, are
Speaker 1: you called a Christian? You called by his name? My
Speaker 1: people who are called by my name will humble themselves
Speaker 1: and pray and seek my face and turn from their
Speaker 1: wicked ways. Then, I'll do three things. I will hear
Speaker 1: from heaven. I will forgive their sins and I will
Speaker 1: heal their land. Now, please listen to me closely with
Speaker 1: somebody as a pastor who cares about you and who
Speaker 1: loves you. we can't expect anybody else to do this.
Speaker 1: This is a promise for us. This is a promise
Speaker 1: for God's people. Today, it's promised to the church. We
Speaker 1: must lead the way. We must be the model. We
Speaker 1: must humbly confess our sins, not everybody else's. In recent years,
Speaker 1: the church has behaved very badly. We've made idols out
Speaker 1: of all kinds of things. And we have put our
Speaker 1: hope in the wrong thing and wrong people. But if
Speaker 1: anything is gonna change, it has to start with us.
Speaker 1: not the people you disagree with or don't like or
Speaker 1: you think they're the problem. 1 Peter 4, 17, we
Speaker 1: read this verse earlier. For the time has come for
Speaker 1: judgment and it must begin with us. Judgment must start
Speaker 1: with the family of God first. If God's gonna judge
Speaker 1: a nation, he's gonna first start with the Christians in
Speaker 1: that nation, not anybody else. So stop looking for change
Speaker 1: to happen first in other people. And the people you
Speaker 1: disagree with, the people you can't stand, the people who
Speaker 1: think differently than you, had a different background than you.
Speaker 1: You have to start with you. I have to start
Speaker 1: with me. We have to start with us. Will you
Speaker 1: join me in this? Will you be honest to God?
Speaker 1: Of course. Of course. I am interested in saving a nation,
Speaker 1: but I am even more interested in saving our souls,
Speaker 1: our souls. And we have sold out many times our
Speaker 1: souls to second class causes and they have betrayed us.
Speaker 1: Here's the good news. 1 Corinthians 11, 31 says, If
Speaker 1: we judged ourselves in the right way, God would not
Speaker 1: judge us. Did you know that verse is in the Bible?
Speaker 1: 1 Corinthians 11, 31. If we judged ourselves in the
Speaker 1: right way, God would not judge us. So again, I
Speaker 1: ask you, will you join me? I'm asking this of
Speaker 1: Christians all across America. I'm asking this of Christians all
Speaker 1: around the world. I'm not asking this for people who
Speaker 1: don't know the Lord. I'm asking those of us who do,
Speaker 1: who claim the name of Christ. The Bible says that
Speaker 1: everyone that nameth the name of Christ should depart from iniquity.
Speaker 1: Will you join me? And in this new year that
Speaker 1: we would confess our sins humbly, that we would pray sincerely,
Speaker 1: that we would seek God, not as blessing, seek God intensely.
Speaker 1: and that we would turn to God completely. Because if
Speaker 1: we do that, we can expect, then I will hear
Speaker 1: from heaven, I will forgive their sins, and I will
Speaker 1: heal their land. If that doesn't happen, I don't give
Speaker 1: this nation or the world any hope. Our hope is
Speaker 1: not in who we put in the White House. Our
Speaker 1: hope is who we put on the cross. There's only
Speaker 1: one Savior. And his name is Jesus. Let's bow our heads.
Speaker 1: With our heads bowed, would you follow me in a
Speaker 1: simple prayer and saying, God, I want to be part
Speaker 1: of the solution, not part of the problem. God, I
Speaker 1: want to follow the pathway to healing, healing in my heart,
Speaker 1: healing in my family, healing in my friendships, the pathway
Speaker 1: to healing in my business, in our church, in our community,
Speaker 1: healing in our nation, healing in our world. It's easy
Speaker 1: to understand what you've told us. It's hard to do it.
Speaker 1: And we can't do it on our own. So we
Speaker 1: come to you, Holy Spirit, and ask you to give
Speaker 1: us the power to confess our sins humbly and to
Speaker 1: be specific. to make a sin list and cross them
Speaker 1: all out and to pray sincerely, to make a prayer
Speaker 1: list and be specific about the things we want to
Speaker 1: ask you to do in our nation, in our lives,
Speaker 1: in our church. Help us to seek you intensely to
Speaker 1: start and end each day. His word, first word, his word,
Speaker 1: last word. to seek first the kingdom of God and
Speaker 1: his righteousness and all these other things will be added
Speaker 1: and help us to turn completely to you. Help us
Speaker 1: to stop looking at other people as wicked and to
Speaker 1: realize that I have wicked parts in me that are wrong,
Speaker 1: that are ungodly, that need to be changed by you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, God, for your grace. If you've never invited
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ in your heart, say, Jesus Christ, I need
Speaker 1: your forgiveness. I need you to save me from myself.
Speaker 1: I need your salvation in my life. I need the
Speaker 1: power to change. I need to know your purpose for
Speaker 1: my life. Lord, heal our hearts, heal our families, heal
Speaker 1: our nation In Jesus' name, amen.