Our Great Need

[0:00] And we see here Australia. The great need of our land is revival. This is the view that Julie had before she hit the roo once.! In the context or that kind of reflection of revival, it's often a verse that people turn to. And it says this, 2 Chronicles 7.14, you might want to say it along with me.

[0:42] 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 will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

[1:00] And in the context here, it's King Solomon dedicating the temple, the new temple, and the people were praising, praying, they were sacrificing, there was that heart to worship.

[1:12] And the word says that the fire came down from heaven. It says that in the early part of the chapter. It says, now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priest could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house.

[1:37] What a spectacle! Can we imagine it? We can't really conceive of it, can we? What it would have looked like? What it would have felt like? Simon prayed and the fire fell. And the glory of God came. The temple was filled. It was overwhelming.

[1:52] And it's such that they couldn't stand to minister. The people just were overwhelmed with this sense of the glory of God. And we see really, as some have called this, the blueprint for revival. God's blueprint for revival. It's God's promise right here.

[2:10] As you can imagine, the spectacle of the glory, we see that here is when the Lord promises, if my people, if my people. Australia needs that divine intervention, don't we? We need revival. What is revival? It's spiritual life, that's what it is.

[2:31] It's life coming out of the desert, really, isn't it? It's God's people coming alive. Alive again. Someone asked the question, when do we need revival? And he answered it like this.

[2:45] When the things of God do not stir us. When the glories of heaven do not interest us. When the horrors of hell do not concern us. When the peril of the lost does not move us.

[2:59] When the word of God does not attract us. When the idea of prayer does not draw us. When the house of God does not delight us. When we fail to see that every part of our life is a platform to perform the will of God.

[3:15] We need revival, don't we? We all do, don't we? We need revival. And we read here of some of the conditions, some of the requirements for revival. And this verse starts off, as we read it there, if.

[3:28] If. Starts off an L. If is a big word. Two letters, but it's a big word, isn't it? If. If only. If only. It means there's a choice here, isn't it? A choice.

[3:41] We can do what it says, or we can disobey God. Revival starts with you and me, doesn't it? If. My people. That's you and me. It starts with you and me. God's own people.

[3:54] He says, my people. Mine. You're mine. And he says, firstly, be humble. Be humble. Now, of course I'm very proud of being humble myself.

[4:05] You know, I polish my humility badge every day. But no, seriously, pride is a problem, isn't it? We can get proud. We can get proud of our humility.

[4:16] Can't we? We have to let go of pride. Let go of pride. Pride. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves. Pride.

[4:27] Cause the downfall of Lucifer. Some people say Australia is a proud nation. Well, actually, that's a problem if we say that. But God commends humility. And not pride. Not pride.

[4:40] Let me tell you about humility from the word of God. James 4 verse 10. It says, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty, under the mighty hand of God.

[4:51] That's another. That's another quote. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. Don't you want that?

[5:03] The humility comes before the lifting up. Humility is being totally consumed with glorifying God. He gets the glory, not us. And pride is a blessing blocker, isn't it?

[5:15] We can get proud and that blocks God's blessings. We can get proud. For example, like the Pharisees. They had it down pat. Everything just right. And they were proud.

[5:27] They were proud of their knowledge, of their learning, of their righteousness. Yet they neglected the weightier matters. So it says, Matthew 23, and you can read the whole chapter for context.

[5:40] He says unto the Pharisees, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.

[5:56] These ought ye yet to have done, and not leave the other undone. The other. Judgment, mercy, faith. They were proud of how they had their doctrine just so.

[6:12] And we can get proud. We can get proud about a show of serving God, and yet not being wholehearted about it. Luke 17, 10. Our Lord tells how we should be like a servant and a master.

[6:28] That we should be like servants in a household. And when we have done what we are meant to do, just to have that humility of heart. As it reads here in Luke 17, verse 10.

[6:41] It tells, our Lord speaks of this example of a master, and the servants of the household doing their work. So likewise ye, when ye have done all those things which I commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants.

[6:58] We have done that which was our duty to do. And really, when we serve the Lord in whatever capacity, in whatever little or big ways, in whatever context of serving God, of giving, of being a servant of God, that you do for him in your own way, maybe unseen things, many.

[7:22] We can get proud about our ministry. But truly, everything that we have, all that we are, is really what he has given to us.

[7:33] Isn't it? And when we've done what we've been commanded to do, well, that's the least we can do. To do our duty is the least we can do. It's the expected thing to do.

[7:45] We shouldn't really kind of think more highly of ourselves for having done anything for God, because it's really the least we can do. Everything we have, we've been given.

[7:57] Amen? And sometimes we only go so far. We know we could do more. We could be more faithful. And yet we can get proud for that little bit that we do.

[8:08] We might inwardly or even outwardly brag about what we do. We might feel, oh, I'm doing more than so-and-so or such-and-such and have a high opinion of ourselves. But really, we're only doing what is our duty to do.

[8:22] We've all got a work to do. Just do it. We could do more, but we don't. And we get proud for the little that we do. And that's wrong, isn't it? Our obedience can be really only partial.

[8:34] Like with Saul. It reads of Saul, Samuel came to Saul. Saul said unto Samuel, Blessed be thou of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, What meaneth...

[8:48] Can I have some sound effects here? But... Oh, what's that strange noise? People's trying to sound like a sheep. What meaneth this bleating of the sheep in my ears?

[9:01] And the lowing of the oxen, which I hear. So the context here, you know, Saul had been commanded to destroy this, the Amalekites' sheep and oxen, but he kept some of them to give as a sacrifice.

[9:15] He made a show of a sacrifice, but really the problem was his obedience was only partial. Oh, I've performed the commandment of the Lord.

[9:26] I'm so good. Look at me. Oh! And then the sheep and the oxen start making noises. And he realised he really was only partially obedient.

[9:39] We can get even proud about our praying. The Pharisees were so accomplished in their prayers. It says here in Matthew 6, 5, Our Lord rebukes them. He says, So these Pharisees would parade around, making a big show and big spectacle of all their good works.

[10:08] Whereas the Lord commended those that prayed in secret, those that fasted in secret, those that gave in secret, but the Pharisees were all about display. God hates prideful religion.

[10:19] He hates prideful religion. And he says that even God actually hates church sometimes. Wow! Let's not be that kind of church. The one mentioned here, in fact, the assembly here, once in Isaiah 1, God says he hates this kind of assembly.

[10:35] He says, Bring no more vain oblations, like this, you know, your fake kind of sacrifices, you know, your showy giving. Your incense is an abomination unto me.

[10:46] In sense, speaking of prayers. It's a symbol of prayers. And he says, The new moons and the Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot, away with it. It is iniquity.

[10:57] He's saying it's sinful. Even the solemn assembly, even this holy meeting, he says it's sin. It's iniquity. He says, Your new moons and your appointed feasts, My soul hates it.

[11:10] They are a trouble unto me, for I am weary to bear them. So think of that as the context here of an assembly that's not right before God. God hates that kind of thing. It's hateful to him.

[11:22] On the contrary, Peter writes how the Lord commends the humble. He commends the humble. He says, All of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility.

[11:35] For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. I like to say this is the required dress code for this church. That we be clothed with humility. Amen.

[11:46] That's what we know. I hope you got your humility on this morning. I hope you're wearing it. Be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud, but he is grace. Don't you want grace? He is grace unto the humble.

[11:58] Praise God. We urge to be clothed with humility. Now, when it says be clothed with humility, it's a picture really of the servant's clothing, of the servant's apron, or the towel.

[12:11] And Peter's here, we could reflect that he's picturing that kind of servanthood of the master, our master, the Lord Jesus in John 13, when he took the towel and he girded himself, and he taught the disciples.

[12:25] We're told all of you submit one to another. Yourselfs one to another. The world doesn't have training courses in humility. Now, I don't know if there's a Humility 101 course out there, but they don't teach humility in Bible schools.

[12:41] It's not normally a subject that's on offer down there. There's plenty of training in the world about building self-esteem, building your self-confidence, but what about learning humility?

[12:52] That would be controversial, wouldn't it? Wouldn't that be counter-cultural? Pride is a problem, people, isn't it? Pride can be a problem. And really, pride is the enemy of revival.

[13:03] We see the church at Laodicea. I'm rich. I'm increased with goods. I have need of nothing. And God says, knowest not thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

[13:20] The church at Laodicea, they were a prideful church. They thought they had everything. We don't have need of, we've got need of nothing. We don't even need God anymore. That's kind of the thought of it, isn't it?

[13:32] And many Bible examples of God's people getting prideful. But thankfully, there's examples of God's people humbling themselves. For example, Simon Peter. There was a great draft of fishes.

[13:45] There was a great miracle of God's provision as this fisherman was shocked by the taking of this draft of great fish that was this catch of fish that they had by God's provision.

[14:00] And when Simon Peter saw it, this is Luke 5 verse 8, it says he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

[14:11] He humbled himself, realized who he was in the sight of the Saviour. Peter wasn't blowing his own trumpet here. He was saying, Lord, I'm not worthy. I'm sinful.

[14:22] Joshua is another one who led the people humbly. In Joshua 7 verse 6, it says, Joshua rent his clothes. It's a picture of contrition. It's a picture of repentance.

[14:33] It's a picture of humility before God. He tore his clothes, it says. And he fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide. He and the elders of Israel put dust upon their heads.

[14:45] So he humbled himself in this graphic picture, tearing his clothes, throwing dust upon his head. Moses is another one, another example of humility. It says of Moses that Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.

[15:02] Numbers 12, 3. Paul was another one who displayed humility. His very name, the new name that the Lord gave Saul, Paul, it means little.

[15:13] Wow. That'd be a bit of a, what's the word? That would deflate your ego, wouldn't it? God changes your name to little. Paul, he displayed humility too.

[15:26] Went and picked up sticks and he did the humble things, didn't he? The lowly things. He was small enough for God to use. That's what we need to be, isn't it? Don't we?

[15:37] Let us be humble and God will use us. Now friends, God hates pride. He hates it. It's one of the six things that God hates listed in Proverbs 6, verses 16 through 19.

[15:50] You know, read the other five. But God hates pride. He hates the prideful look. It's the opposite of what God wants for us. God doesn't want us to be proud, to be prideful.

[16:01] He wants us to have a humility of heart. Think of what pride looks like. Pride in a life. Pride refuses to listen. Pride likes to talk about itself.

[16:14] Pride is not thankful. Pride cannot be corrected. Pride does not like to follow instructions. Pride exalts itself in the presence of others. It brags.

[16:25] Pride thinks of its own needs first. Pride, it's the opposite of what God wants for us, what he wants us to be. It's been said, the branch that bears the most fruit bows lowest to the ground, while the branch with little or no fruit stands mostly upright.

[16:40] And so it is with humility and with conceit. So the one who is humble has the true wisdom, not the prideful. So today, friends, let's learn this humility, this lesson of humility.

[16:54] Let's learn to depend upon God. That's humility, isn't it? That we're sensitive to God's presence. It's about emptying ourselves at his feet. It's a brokenness before him.

[17:05] It's worship. That's how they praised along with King Solomon. As we read again the context of 2 Chronicles 7, it says, we saw how the glory came, the house was filled, and the people were overwhelmed.

[17:20] It says, verse 3, when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord came upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good, for his mercy endureth forever.

[17:36] They bowed themselves with their faces to the pavement. Wow. Humility. A more modern example is this man, the inventor of the telegraph, Professor Samuel Morse.

[17:50] Samuel Morse, you know the Morse code? You know, dot, dot, dash, dash, dot, dot, all of that. Professor Morse was asked one day by a friend, Professor Morse, when you were making your experiments in your rooms at the university, did you ever come to a standstill, not knowing what to do next?

[18:09] Oh, yes, more than once. At such times, what did you do next? Morse said, whenever I could not see my way clearly, I prayed for more light.

[18:21] And the light generally came? Yes, said Morse. Morse. And may I tell you that when flattering honours came to me from the invention which bears my name, I never felt I deserved them.

[18:33] I had made a valuable application of electricity, not because I was superior to other men, but solely because God, who meant it for mankind, must reveal it to someone and was pleased to reveal it to me.

[18:46] So he had that humility of heart. He didn't brag on about his great invention, but he said, God revealed it to me. God chose to reveal it to me. And it's all to him.

[18:58] And so the first message sent by the inventor of the Morse code, Samuel Morse, was, What hath God wrought? I don't know what that sounded like, dot, dot, dash, dash.

[19:09] I won't even try. I tried to learn Morse code when I was a kid, but I think I learned about five letters or something. So don't rely upon me if you're out on the ocean and you've got to send a signal in Morse code.

[19:21] But it is a useful thing to learn Morse code. You never know when it could come in handy, seriously. But the message, the first message in Morse code, What hath God wrought?

[19:32] What's God done? Wow. That's it, isn't it? Glory to him. And God will reward humility. There was a preacher, Mayer, who said this, I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves, one above the other.

[19:45] And the taller we grew in Christian character, you know, there's this kind of set of shelves, you know, the best ones are on the top. You know, as if the God's gifts are there on different shelves. But now I find that God's shelves are one beneath the other.

[19:59] And it's not about growing taller, but stooping lower. That's where the best gifts are. It's a thought, isn't it? The more we are humble, the more God will bless and guide and encourage and give.

[20:14] If my people will humble themselves. Do we have that humility? Or is the pride there? It's got to be killed, crucified, nailed.

[20:25] There was a time of communion in a church and the Duke of Wellington was there, very, very noble man.

[20:37] And then there was a very poor old man there too at the same church. And they came together to the communion table and knelt together. And someone came and touched the poor man on the shoulder and said, Oh, the Duke's here.

[20:50] You've got to wait until the Duke has received the bread and the cup. But then the Duke stopped that and said, Do not move.

[21:01] We're all equal here. Now we're all equal here, aren't we? We can be a Duke, a Prime Minister, whatever, someone noteworthy. And just the average person off the street.

[21:14] And we're all equal in the foot of the cross. We're all equal at the ground of the cross, aren't we? We're all equally unworthy, equally undeserving, equally recipients of it that trust him.

[21:26] And so we're all utterly helpless and we ought to have the same heart, that we're all equal. And have that humility. Amen. Our text goes on to say, Pray and seek his face.

[21:40] Pray. It goes hand in hand with humility, doesn't it? If we're humble, we'll want to depend on God. We'll want to seek his help. We'll want to pray. We'll want to take time to pray.

[21:51] We'll want to learn that total dependence upon him. Pray. Pray for yourself. Pray for others. Too many are playing instead of praying. Prayerlessness is another example of an enemy of revival.

[22:04] We see pride was an example of an enemy of revival. Prayerlessness is an enemy of revival too. God told Solomon, verse 12 of 7, it says, And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place for myself for an house of sacrifice.

[22:25] Don't you want God to hear your prayer? That's the kind of prayer we want to pray, isn't it? It doesn't have to be some flowery prayer, but a prayer that God hears. That's what matters. A humble prayer. That's the kind of prayer God hears.

[22:37] God wants us to go to prayer, to talk with him, to talk direct to him. Like Jacob, who wrestled with God in prayer. It was agonising prayer. Genesis 32.

[22:48] We see the pictures of it there, of how a man wrestled with Jacob. And of course it reflected that it was God. Jacob was wrestling with God.

[23:00] And it's a picture of us wrestling in prayer. That our prayer should be so intense. It should be so urgent. It should be so pressing.

[23:11] That we will be like Jacob. Jacob wrestled in prayer. Amen. Elijah prayed. And God called, and he called down fire from heaven. When Elijah prayed, fire fell.

[23:22] Wow. Wouldn't that be something? You pray and the fire falls. Whoa. Where did that come from? Daniel prayed. And God shut the mouths of the lions. Paul prayed and the prison walls were shaken.

[23:35] Think of it. You can pray just like they did. To the same God. With the same power. Maybe with the same impact. Wow. Wouldn't that be something?

[23:46] So we should pray. Notice that when we pray, it's talking about the purpose of God. When we pray, he says, pray, thy will be done.

[23:57] Sometimes we go to prayer and we say, oh, Lord, my will, let it be done. That's a problem, isn't it? Lord, my will, let it be done. No, thy will, let it be done.

[24:09] Thy will be done. It's about God's purpose. What does God want? That we would want that. We would want to have a heart for that. And prayer looks to God and says, I can't, but you can.

[24:21] It's dependence. It's that humility factor again. There were two pastors' wives mending their husbands' pants. And one of them said to the other, my poor John, he's so discouraged in his church work.

[24:34] He said just the other day he was considering resigning. It seems nothing goes right for him. Then the other said, well, my husband was saying just the opposite. He's so enthusiastic. It seems like the Lord is closer to him than ever before.

[24:46] There was a hushed silence as they looked at the trousers. And as they continued to mend the trousers, one was patching the seat and the other was patching the knees. You know, it's about prayer, isn't it?

[24:58] That we depend upon him. And God will encourage us through prayer. There was a sign in front of a church that said, our church is prayer conditioned. That's what we need. We might have the air conditioning, but we need to be prayer conditioned.

[25:11] Amen? Don't you want to be that kind of church? Amen. Shouldn't we be? Prayer conditioned. That's what we need. There was a Danish proverb that says, pray to God in the storm, but keep on rowing.

[25:24] Now, prayer is not a cop out from working and action. Some people think, I'll pray about it. In other words, I don't really want to do it. Just hope, just give it a bit of time and then you'll forget that.

[25:37] No, that's not how it works. Pray and keep on rowing. You know, it's not a cop out. Prayer is not a cop out from action. We combine prayer with action.

[25:48] That's what we need. And when we pray, God will show us what we are to do. He'll give us the gumption and the unction to do it.

[25:59] So we must combine prayer with action. Here's another quote. Prayer is not merely an occasional impulse when we are in trouble. Prayer is a life attitude. And Bunyan said this, the best prayers often have more groans than words.

[26:13] Oh! The agony of prayer. We need more agonizers in the church. So pray. Let's be a praying church.

[26:25] There's power in prayer. There's power when we get together and pray. There's victory in prayer. There's God's supply in prayer. Don't miss out on the blessings of prayer.

[26:36] It's something, sometimes we, we miss the blessings that we could have because we don't pray. And we should get a burden for it. Once there was a new Christian who came to a prayer meeting.

[26:48] It was the first time. And he was afraid to pray out loud. I know there's people that find that hard. They find it hard just to, to even have a conversation, let alone pray.

[27:01] It can be hard. It can be a tough thing. It's confronting. Talking to the maker of the universe. And he was afraid to pray, pray aloud. He just couldn't, felt like he couldn't pray like others were praying.

[27:12] And then after some encouragement, he stood and he said, Lord, this is Jim. I'm the one you met last Thursday night. Forgive me, Lord, because I can't say it the way the rest of these people do.

[27:25] But I want to tell you the best I know how. I love you. Amen. That's a profound prayer, isn't it? That man's simple prayer ignited the prayer meeting.

[27:37] It's not how you pray, the words you say. It's your heart. It's your heart. And it's not that others need to hear what your words are. He does.

[27:48] Even in a prayer meeting. So don't feel bashful or embarrassed. The first time you do it is always the hardest. But then it can be just a simple prayer.

[27:59] I love you. Amen. That's it. It's like, there's some very short prayers in the Bible, isn't it? Help me. How does it go? People know the ones. There's a couple of short prayers, isn't there?

[28:11] Save me. Help me. Remember me when you come in your kingdom. They were short prayers, weren't they? But they were meaningful prayers. So brother, sister, don't let your nerve stop you from praying.

[28:24] Please. Please pray. There's power in prayer. An old time preacher said, One concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion.

[28:40] He laughs at our toil. He mocks at our wisdom. But he trembles when we pray. There's another quote that says, Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.

[28:54] You know, the weakest saint, the... Pray. You're harnessing God's power. Pray. The devil hates prayer. It's like one evangelist talked about the devil urging his demon forces to keep us from praying and saying something like, Boys, keep them from praying.

[29:15] If you keep them from praying, we win every time. If they pray, the Lord wins every time. Whatever you do, keep them from praying. The devil doesn't want you to pray, brother. He doesn't want you to pray, sister.

[29:26] Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray. And it... And it's just that meaningful prayer. That prayer between you and him. That communion. That one-to-one.

[29:37] Pray. Pray fervently. God will work and answer your prayers. Be faithful in prayer. There's a German proverb that says, When in prayer, you clasp your hands and God opens his.

[29:50] Have a think about that. Pray. God opens his hands to you. And prayer is the place where burdens change shoulders. God provides answer to prayer.

[30:01] So make prayer a priority. Don't miss it. It's important. And I need to pray more. We all need more prayer. More reliance upon him. D.L. Moody said, Prayer needs to be a priority in our life.

[30:16] I'd rather be able to pray than to be a great preacher. The Lord Jesus never taught his disciples how to preach, but only how to pray. Is prayer a priority for us?

[30:31] The disciples said, Teach us to pray. That's a good... That's a good prayer. Teach me how to pray, Lord. Amen. Another quote. Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?

[30:44] You only get the prayer out when you need to go and see the tire specialist. You know, you leave that spare tire and you just forget about it. You only call on it when there's an emergency.

[30:55] Or is prayer your steering wheel? Amen. That'd be good, wouldn't it? Both. Both. That's a good one. So, I mean, Luther, for all his faults, he said this, is that, As it is the business of tailors to make clothes, and of cobblers to men's shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.

[31:17] It's our business. It's a primary thing for a believer to pray. Friends, people are searching in this world, aren't they? Searching, seeking, spending their lives searching yet never finding, but friends, there's a great reward for seeking the Lord.

[31:35] Hebrews 11, 6, it says, Well, without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

[31:48] So let us pray and seek his face. In that scripture, 2 Chronicles 7, it says we should pray and seek his face. Do we seek God's face?

[32:03] Think of that. God's actual face, in the sense of that closeness to him, that focus, that he would be our focus.

[32:15] Now we give up our self-seeking, and we seek him. We seek God. We seek him, and diligently seek him. It's been said we should seek for his face, and not his hand.

[32:26] Sometimes we come to pray, and we want God's hand. Give. Give me, give me, give me my shopping list. Rather, we should seek his face. Seek his face.

[32:38] Give him glory. Give him glory. Bless him. Praise him. Know about him. Know more of him. Who he is. Not just to call upon him for our need, because our biggest need is him.

[32:51] Isn't it? It's him. To know him. It's about God's presence. To know him in a close-up, personal kind of way. Face to face with Christ. The word talks about God's face shining upon us.

[33:04] Wow. That'd be glorious, wouldn't it? God's face shining upon you. And it does. Sister, brother, God's face does shine upon you.

[33:15] And it's what we will have in heaven is God's face. It's like in prayer we have a foretaste of what we will have in heaven.

[33:27] It says, they shall see his face. Wow. And his name shall be in their foreheads. Revelation 22, 4. So let's be mindful of seeking his face.

[33:39] Mindful of that God consciousness, that God awareness, that we would understand his will, his heart. And we can experience this. Think of Exodus 3, Moses and the burning bush.

[33:52] God showed up there in that burning bush. It wasn't that there was anything special about the bush itself. Now, I don't know. We've probably got a bush in our backyard that might have done the job.

[34:05] And likewise, it could be any old bush, as it were. But what mattered that God was in the bush. That's what matters. And it's the same with you and me. We might be just an ordinary common garden variety bush.

[34:19] But if God is in the bush, as it were, that God is inside of us, burning in us, it's kind of that thought that if God is in us, that's what matters.

[34:31] We can be a burning bush. Even a simple bush such as you and me, it's just being available that God would inflame us and fire us up.

[34:44] And God is just looking for ordinary men and women to be a burning bush in a way. That we would seek his face. That we would please him and bless him.

[34:57] The church is like a sleeping giant. Think of the potential that's here this morning. It's a sleeping giant. And the church worldwide, globally, the church is like a sleeping giant.

[35:10] But let us be stirred to prayer, to pray, to yield to God. So we've seen we should humble ourselves and pray.

[35:21] And seek his face. And thirdly, turn from wickedness. A big problem is sin in the camp. Sin in our nation.

[35:33] Think of it. Australia normalizes now what just a few years ago was considered deviant. Criminal behavior. It's still wrong.

[35:45] It is still wrong. In God's sight. We are a morally bankrupt nation. Morally bankrupt. Even churches. Actually, I was a bit shocked.

[35:56] I did a search on Twitter. I was looking for a picture of a church to kind of illustrate something. I searched for the word church.

[36:07] And there was a picture of a church came up in Adelaide. And there was a picture of a woman on a keyboard, wearing a shirt with a rainbow on it.

[36:19] And it said, this is the gay that God has made. This is a church in Adelaide. This is a gay that the Lord has made.

[36:30] No, sir. God doesn't make gays. Sinful man makes gays. Sinful man makes abomination and wickedness. That's sinful man. God doesn't make a gay.

[36:41] God saves gays. Can make them new people, new creations, set them right. But God doesn't make us gay. No, sir. That's the morally bankrupt nation that we're living in.

[36:55] There's talk today of a great reset. Friends, ancient landmarks are being reset. They're resetting things. It says in the word of God, remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.

[37:08] A landmark speaks about a boundary marker. It speaks about pegging out a piece of ground. I know there's some folk trying to get a house built and you've got to peg out the land to get it marked out.

[37:22] And in old time, they would move these ancient landmarks, these boundary markers, so that, oh, I'll get a bit more land off my neighbour. I'll just move the pegs a little bit.

[37:33] And so they would remove, they would move them. And friends, there's a lot of moving of markers. A lot of moving of those ancient landmarks. We see Hollywood is moving the landmarks, isn't it?

[37:44] Disney is moving the landmarks. Social media is moving the landmarks. Canberra is moving the landmarks. All around us is an increasing evil and immorality.

[37:56] Think of our nation. Friends, we think of our nation. I won't say our proud nation. It would be nice if it was a humble nation. Think of our nation today. As Australia is on the edge of yet another election, a new national election.

[38:11] And the stakes are high as the nation slides. This nation of ours is sliding, is sliding further and further away from righteousness. And we think of our own nation.

[38:23] May we be moved to pray. That we would, my people, would humble themselves, he says. Pray. Seek my face. Turn from their wicked ways.

[38:37] May we be moved to the condition of our nation to pray for Australia. To pray for whoever's going to be the top dog. And know that God is our cry.

[38:51] Lord. They say, God save the Queen. I think that's a good prayer to pray too. God save the Prime Minister. God save our land, our people.

[39:04] Leave our wicked ways behind. We need to have a conviction of sin. To see sin for the ugly thing that it is. To repent. To bow to the will of God.

[39:15] To turn unto Him. We need a heaven sent revival. There was a young fellow having a bit of a go at the preacher.

[39:29] And he was a bit flippant, sort of having a bit of a laugh. And he said to the preacher a question. How heavy is sin? You say that unsaved people carry a weight of sin.

[39:40] I feel nothing. How heavy is sin? Is it 10 pounds? 80 pounds? The preacher replied. If you laid a 400 pound weight on a corpse, would it fill the load?

[39:51] And the youth said. It would fill nothing because it's dead. And the preacher said. That spirit too indeed is dead. Which fills no load of sin. Or does not care about its burden.

[40:04] And is flippant about its presence. Friends, that reality is that sin is a heavy burden. But some people don't feel it. Because they're dead towards God.

[40:15] They're dead in sin. Friends, we need a sense of our sin. Realise our sin. The sinfulness. The exceeding sinfulness of our sin. Our great need. Friends, our great need.

[40:26] So, let's read this one more time together, shall we? 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 will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

[40:49] As a people, we've been going in the wrong direction. We need to turn unto God. And that turning is not only saying, I'm sorry with my sin, but I'm through with my sin.

[41:01] To turn from their wicked ways. Turn from their wicked ways. We want His forgiveness, His healing. We need to heal. Australia is sick. It needs healing.

[41:12] It's a basket case. It's in the palliative care. Friends, it's a dying nation. It's dead towards God. And it needs the healing of God.

[41:24] It needs God's forgiveness. And people need the healing of God for their soul. Sin will block prayer. We see the word of God talks about holding iniquity in our heart, but the Lord will not hear us.

[41:39] We must humble ourselves and pray. Humble, then pray. Turn from our wicked ways. It's interesting in Isaiah we read where, of course, that familiar one where the Lord says, who will go for me?

[41:56] And we see the Isaiah say, here am I. But notice, before he said, here am I, he said, woe is me.

[42:07] I am undone. He said, woe is me first. Then he said, here am I. And it's getting things right, isn't it, with God?

[42:18] That we realize our sin, our need, our vital need of forgiveness. And this is really our great need as a nation. It's revival. That's what we need. And as we yield to God and trust his promises, he promises forgiveness.

[42:33] He promises healing. Our land surely needs healing. It's damaged. It's torn. The word heal, in our verse here, the word heal their land, it means to stitch back together.

[42:48] To repair thoroughly. God wants to do a repair job. A total repair. A restoration. And we must firstly humble ourselves, pray, seek his face, turn from our wicked ways.

[43:05] And then he will hear from heaven. Forgive our sin and heal our land. Let's pray. We praise you that you are so mighty and so gracious, Lord.

[43:18] Help us, Lord, to truly learn humility. We know this world doesn't make much of humility, but we know that you do. And you want that for us. Because as we humble ourselves under your mighty hand, you will lift us up.

[43:33] Lord, we thank you for the grace that can take a sinner and make them a saint. Lord, that we can know forgiveness, life eternal, as we trust your eternal transaction made at the cross.

[43:49] For we that will trust that work of the cross on our part, we can know eternal life. We pray especially that each one here present might come to understand and know that.

[44:03] And have that. That eternal life gift. Lord, we know without it we're lost. We're a dead corpse. Yet you make us truly alive.

[44:15] And Lord, we that are saved, help us, Lord, to not neglect the truths here. Your promises to us to humble ourselves.

[44:28] Lord, keep us humble, Lord. Help us to learn humility, even if it means hardness. Even if it means crucifixion.

[44:43] Lord, that we would have a humility. That we wouldn't ever get inflated such that we miss your best, which is that we humble ourselves. Help us, Lord, to not ever even brag about the good things that we do.

[45:03] Or have a heart to inflate ourselves in any way, Lord. But that we always have that sense of who you are. Lord, that we would seek your face. We would seek your will.

[45:14] We would say, thy will be done. In me. In us. Each one. Thy will be done. Lord, that we would have a sense of our sin.

[45:27] And forsake it. We'd turn from it. We'd know your cleansing power. Your grace to forgive and keep on forgiving. Lord, yet we won't neglect to seek your face.

[45:41] When there's so much else we can seek in our lives, to not neglect to seek your face. Lord, give us that heart. We praise you for these things. Lord, revive our land.

[45:53] We know it's our greatest need for our land of Australia. For each one. Every individual. For every saint. For every church. It's our great need. Lord, help us to have that mindfulness of your great supply.

[46:08] And your many great promises. They're exceeding great and precious. And one of them is that you will hear from heaven. And you'll heal our land. We thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name.

[46:20] Amen.