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Your ears and your heart will be with your people forever.
Help us to see the privilege that that is and to fall on our knees in worship.
Long more and more for more of you, God.
So be honored in the preaching of your word and we pray these things in Jesus' strong name.
Amen.
So with Advent coming next week, we are closing out our fall series.
We've been in a series on the theme of what?
Revival.
Right?
So this is the final sermon on revival.
So no pressure.
Right?
All right?
It's make it or break it today.
Got to bring the fire and let the revival begin.
Amen.
Thank you.
But you know, seriously, every time I come up here to preach God's Holy Spirit-inspired word of truth,
I do pray, I do hope for, I do expect a revival of some kind.
And like, if not in this whole world, maybe in this country.
If not in this country, maybe in this city.
If not in this city, at least maybe in this church.
Maybe if not in this whole church, then maybe at least in some of you.
And if not in even any of you, at least in me.
At least in me.
I'm always hoping for, I'm always expecting revival.
And I'm hoping that that's something we can take away from this series.
That no matter the scale, revival is something that we never stop pursuing.
Deeper intimacy with God.
Fresh experiences of his presence and his power amongst us.
The very dynamic, I imagine, of heaven itself.
This trajectory of plumbing the bottomless depths of our infinite God for all eternity.
Here at Christ Church, we will never move on.
We will never graduate from pursuing revival.
As Jonathan shared last week in our congregational meeting,
we are convinced that revival is the last great hope of the Bay Area,
even of the entire secular West.
Revival.
Not politics.
Not civility and kindness and charity.
Not reason and argumentation.
Not money or prosperity.
Not scientific or technological advancements.
What the Bay Area needs, we believe, is a revival.
The supernatural work of the Spirit of God.
To heal and mend all that's been broken.
So see, this series, this hasn't been some kind of individualistic,
religious insider piety that we're promoting and pursuing just inside the walls of this church.
No.
We are seeking to lead people into deeper relationships with Christ for the city.
For the world.
And you know what I love about the Christian faith?
I love the Christian interpretation of history.
The Christian interpretation of history is that even if we cannot force revival like on command,
the story that God is writing in history actually assumes and expects and guarantees revivals.
So even if we cannot determine or set the when and the where of a revival,
we can be confident that revival is always coming.
It's always on the way.
And that guarantee, that promise, is found right here in our text this morning.
This text we've been repeating and alluding to throughout our series in chapter 7, verse 14.
If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face
and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.
This guarantee that revival is always on the way for God's people when they pray.
Now maybe this still doesn't excite you.
This guarantee of a revival, maybe this entire series has been uninspiring to do.
Maybe you're quite content to continue living a prayerless life without revival.
But what if I framed it this way?
What if prayer, this global and historic phenomenon that you can find across virtually every culture
and every religious tradition,
what if prayer wasn't some religious task or duty,
but an indication of each and every human being's longing to be heard?
Every person's longing for someone other than themselves to pay attention to their cries.
Every person's longing for someone who can hear and who can help.
You know, Chelsea and I, we love musicals,
and one of my personal favorites is this one called Dear Evan Hansen.
Anyone listen to or see Dear Evan Hansen?
We love it.
You've got to check it out.
And what it's basically about is this friendless, socially awkward high schooler,
his name is Evan Hansen,
who has spent most of his life feeling like he's unseen and unheard and an outsider.
And so the musical opens with him.
He's getting out of bed and his arm is in a cast.
Because that summer, because of self, out of self-harm,
maybe even suicidal ideation,
he's allowed himself to fall from a tree.
And so he's got this broken arm, he's in a cast,
and he's waking up in bed,
and it's the first day of school,
and he's just absolutely dreading it, right?
And in the opening scene, he enters into the high school,
and everyone's so excited to catch up except for him.
And he's smack in the middle of this whole sea of students,
yet at the same time, he feels all alone,
and this is what he sings.
On the outside, always looking in,
will I ever be more than I've always been?
Because I'm tap, tap, tapping on the glass.
I'm waving through a window.
I try to speak, but nobody can hear,
so I wait around for an answer to appear.
While I'm watch, watch, watching people pass,
I'm waving through a window.
Can anybody see?
Is anybody waving back at me?
He continues, when you're falling in a forest,
and there's nobody around,
do you ever really crash or even make a sound?
Did I even make a sound?
It's like I never made a sound.
Will I ever make a sound?
And you know, I wonder if any of us really needs
to be an awkward teenager to identify with dear Evan Hansen.
Like, you may not feel your need for revival,
but everyone, everyone at one point or another feels unheard.
Like nobody cares, like nobody sees.
But that's what I love about our passage today.
Like, what if I told you of a guarantee,
a guarantee that you would always be heard,
always be seen, and not just by anyone,
but by an all-powerful, good, and loving person.
Even if you are skeptical,
in your skepticism about this person's possible existence,
wouldn't you want this guarantee?
Wouldn't you want a guarantee of this person to be true?
And wouldn't you at least be interested
in how to relate with and communicate with such a person?
Well, that's what this passage illustrates for us,
the privilege, the posture, and the promise of prayer.
And those are our three points,
the privilege, the posture, and the promise of prayer.
Now, to set this up a bit,
because we're jumping right into the middle
of another episode of the Bible,
what's recorded here in our text
is one of the most pivotal, great moments
in Israel's history.
King Solomon's world-famous temple
has finally been built as a permanent residence
for God himself,
this historic temple moment
in their capital, Jerusalem.
And so as it says down here in chapter six, verse 12,
the scene for us is this picture
of this kingly son of David, right, Solomon,
and he's standing before the temple altar
in front of the whole assembly,
and he's lifting up his hands,
and he offers up this prayer.
And see, when we observe how Solomon prays
and what he asks for,
we find that even for this great king of Israel,
this son of David,
prayer is not something that he just presumes.
He sees it as a privilege,
and that's our first point,
the privilege of prayer.
Now read with me and notice how he recognizes
the bigness, the transcendence,
the sovereign authority of God
in comparison to all other things.
Verse 14, he said,
Lord, the God of Israel,
there is no God like you in heaven or on earth.
Verse 18, will God really dwell on earth with humans?
The heavens, even the highest heavens,
cannot contain you,
how much less this temple I have built.
See, Solomon knows better than to presume
that this temple is worthy of Yahweh,
or even capable of housing him.
He knows better than to assume
that this temple could somehow harness the power
and the presence of God.
He knows how silly to think this would be.
Even this greatest architectural feat
in all of Hebrew history,
he knows that in and of itself,
even with all the time and the sweat
and all the resources they put into this temple,
that compared to Yahweh's glory,
it was but a tiny and insignificant box.
Solomon understood that apart from God's own
actual commitment to be present
and attentive to this temple,
it'd just kind of be like,
what is this, a temple for ants?
Right?
Zoolander reference, thank you.
And so with eyes wide open,
wide open to the greatness of this God,
who he hopes will dwell in his dinky little temple,
Solomon does not presume that this temple
is already a place of prayer.
Rather, he pleads for this temple
to be a place of prayer.
Look with me at verse 19.
Look at what he asks for,
and especially notice how many times
he uses the word here.
Verse 19.
Lord my God, give attention
to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy.
Hear the cry and the prayer
that your servant is praying in your presence.
May your eyes be open toward this temple,
day and night, this place of which you said
you would put your name there.
May you hear the prayer your servant prays
toward this place.
Hear the supplications of your servant
and of your people Israel
when they pray toward this place.
Hear from heaven your dwelling place.
And when you hear, forgive.
Verse 40.
Now my God, may your eyes be open
and your ears attentive
to the prayers offered in this place.
Did you catch that?
Here in this most momentous occasion
of King Solomon's reign,
his highest prayer and petition
is basically for the gift of prayer,
the privilege of prayer itself.
He's praying for prayer.
He acknowledges that God is not obliged
to hear and receive their prayers,
so he pleads to God
that God would hear them,
hear their cries, hear their prayers,
hear their supplications
all the way from heaven,
hear their pleas for mercy and forgiveness.
Even for this son of David,
the wisest king of Israel,
prayer is not an entitlement,
but it's an endowment in his eyes.
It's not a presumption.
Again, it's a privilege.
And I wonder how many of us
perceive and practice prayer
for the great privilege that it is.
Or do we take for granted,
do we take communication
with the creator and sustainer
of the universe for granted?
You know, we live in this modern,
egalitarian internet age
where for better and for worse,
people can be heard like never before, right?
Like think about it.
Any one of us could conceivably
go viral tomorrow, right?
With just the right perfect video,
we could get the attention
of all the media outlets
of the president of the United States.
You can shoot off messages,
get into people's DMs,
capture thousands of people's attentions
just like that, right?
You can share on a GoFundMe page
about your personal financial struggles,
and Kim Kardashian just might see it
and donate a few thousand bucks.
Like this is the world that we live in.
Or if I just tweet something
that's clever enough,
compelling enough,
I might get retweeted by Steph Curry, right?
We can get the ears
and the attention of more people
than has ever been possible in history.
And thus it can be easy
to take for granted
our very right to be heard, right?
And the obligation of others
to listen to our cries for attention
and our cries for help.
And I'll be the first one
to say that we should indeed
lend our ears to our neighbors,
to one another.
That there is a real sense
in which we owe our ears
to one another
as fellow human beings.
And it is truly awesome
to think that you can tweet
at Taylor Swift
and she just might see it.
But while I mean no offense
to the Swifties in this room,
Taylor Swift's ears
and God's ears
are on two totally different levels,
all right?
Like just because Taylor Swift
might give her attention
to your tweets
does not mean
we now have the right
to God's ear.
Just because.
The right to God's attention
and to God's responses
to our pleas.
God is God
and we are not.
And he is not obligated
to listen to
or to heed our prayers
and the request
of sinful creatures
just because we want him to.
Do we realize
that there are
over seven and a half
billion people
on this planet?
And before any of us
there were billions
upon billions of others,
each one created
by God
in his image,
each with their own needs
and concerns
and hurts
and longings.
And yet do we presume
that God would give his ear
to any single
one of us?
One speck of sand
amidst the vastness
of the seashore
of humanity.
humanity.
And not to mention
his holiness.
Do we even know
who we presume
to be talking to
in prayer?
The Lord Yahweh,
the high and exalted one
seated on his throne.
Pure and sinless angels
cover their faces
day and night
in his presence
unable to speak
anything else
than holy,
holy,
holy is the Lord
God Almighty
who was and is
and is to come.
Do we presume
to pray to this kind
of a God
with our unclean lips,
lips we've used
to deny him
and dishonor him
and disparage those
made in his image?
You know,
some of us
might be stuck today
and hung up on this mystery
of why God doesn't seem
to hear
and answer our prayers.
But what if the greater
mystery was that
he might even be
willing to?
In Solomon's
unsurpassed wisdom,
he was preoccupied
with this greater mystery,
marveling at the privilege
and the possibility
of prayer,
the possibility
of having a conversation
with God,
being heard by God
with all the attention
of a patient
and empathetic parent
toward their beloved child,
the possibility
of bringing a personal request
to the one
for whom nothing
is impossible.
Christchurch,
we must pray.
No,
it's not that we
must pray,
we get to pray.
We get to pray.
We aren't doing God,
we aren't doing the church
a favor
when we get on our knees,
when we show up
to the boiler room,
to Wednesday,
even song
or to our prayer vigils.
Prayer is the privilege
of the people of God
and when we grasp
the absolute privilege
of prayer
to the holy God
of the universe,
it should make sense
that there is also
a proper posture
of prayer as well
in point number two,
the posture of prayer.
Like just because
we are given
the privilege
of being heard by God,
right,
doesn't mean
we should just come
before him
in any way
that we want.
And I know this might
fly in the face
of our kind of
I'm just gonna do me,
let me be myself
culture,
but honestly,
unless you are
a sociopath,
everyone gets this
at some level.
This is true
of any respectful
relationship.
Just because you are
given the privilege
of a relationship
with someone
does not mean
you should treat them
and approach them
in whatever manner
you choose.
If you are given
the privilege
of entering into
the Vatican
to meet the Pope,
entering the White House
to meet the President,
you don't just go in there
however you want,
like yo, yo, yo,
what's up my guy,
right, fist bump, yo,
no.
Or a better example,
a better example
might be this,
if you've wronged someone,
say you've cheated
on your partner
and they've granted
you the privilege
of entering back
into a relationship
with them,
you don't approach them
in any way
that you want,
in a lighthearted,
flippant way
as if they had not
just shown you
an incredible mercy.
If someone
who is way out
of your league,
if someone
you owe
a great debt to
grants you
the privilege
of a relationship
with them,
this cannot but
affect your posture
toward them.
How can you not
be humble toward them,
personal toward them,
even penitent
toward them?
And that's what we get at
in chapter 7,
verse 14.
God says,
my people
who are called
by my name
will humble themselves
and pray
and seek my face
and turn from
their wicked ways.
See,
a proper posture
of prayer
is one
of humility.
How could we
not be humbled
when we consider
the great privilege
of God
lending his ear
to our unclean lips?
Prayer is inherently
an act of humility,
right?
It's an act of dependence
and it's an admission
of our need
and abandonment
of our self-sufficiency
and you know,
I honestly think
that this is the biggest reason
why many of us
don't pray.
One of our elders
this past week
in our session meeting,
he was saying that,
it was Wes,
Wes Selke,
he was saying that,
he thought that
our biggest problem
and I agree with him,
our society's biggest problem
is that we don't feel
our need for God
and this is not
outside society,
this is the church's
problem as well,
this is why we don't pray.
It's not because
we don't have enough time,
it's not because
we're not pious enough,
it's not because
we're not disciplined enough,
it's because we're not
humble enough,
it's because we are not
humble enough,
it's that simple.
Humble people pray,
prideful people don't.
People who believe
they need God
are in touch with God
and people who don't
believe they need God
will not be in touch
with him.
Now a humble posture
is also a personal posture,
one that seeks God's face,
that seeks God for God.
Remember prayer is not
a transactional exchange
offered up to this
cosmic gumball machine
or this like
your wish is my command
kind of a genie.
Proper prayer does not
ultimately seek God's goods
but God himself.
prayer is not just
worrying in the direction
of God,
it is seeking him,
it's pursuing him,
a relationship
with the living God
and this is the kind
of prayer that God
loves to respond to.
Listen to his words
through the prophet Jeremiah
to an exiled people,
you will seek me
and find me
when you seek me
with all your heart,
I will be found by you
declares the Lord.
Isn't that such
an amazing promise?
Isn't that an amazing promise?
God is after our hearts
and what this also means then
is that our humble
and personal prayers,
they also need to be
penitent prayers.
Turning away
from our wicked ways,
God is light
and in him
is no darkness at all.
If we say we have
fellowship with him
while we walk in darkness,
we lie
and do not practice
the truth.
Like real talk here,
if you don't want
to be forgiven,
God is not going
to forgive you.
If you do not want
to be healed,
God will not heal you.
And I know this all
seems kind of like
no duh,
but are our prayers
really marked
by this kind of humble
and personal
and penitent posture?
Do we assume
a Godward posture
or a selfward posture
when we approach
God in prayer?
Do we pray,
thy will be done
or my will be done?
Are we truly
humbly dependent upon him?
Do we really want God
for God alone?
And are there any
wicked ways
we might be holding on to
that are obstructing
our communion with him?
God has laid out
for us the kind of posture
that pleases him,
that captures his attention.
He says in Isaiah
chapter 66,
this is the one
to whom I will look.
He who is humble
and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word.
That's how we get
the eyes of God.
It's not some
manipulative technique,
to force his hand,
but it's a blueprint
for walking in his light
and life and love.
It's a posture
to set ourselves up
for revival.
You know,
my pastor in college,
Peter Kim,
he talked about this
really helpfully.
He said,
you know,
we cannot force
the hand of God,
we cannot manufacture
revival,
but though we cannot
control the wind
or the sea,
what we can do
is we can put up
our sails, right?
We can correct
our rudders
as we wait
for the fresh wind
of God's spirit
to move us
as he so desires.
When our prayers
are postured
in humility
and in seeking
God's face
and in turning
from our wicked ways,
God promises,
he promises
to hear,
he promises
to forgive,
he promises
to heal
and that's amazing
and that's an amazing
promise
and this is where
we'll end
the promise
of prayer.
You know,
this book,
2 Chronicles,
though it records
Solomon's prayer
and God's response,
you know,
with the fire
coming down,
it was actually
written hundreds
of years later
and in the traditional
Jewish ordering
of the Old Testament,
this would be
the very last book
that you would read.
So in Jesus' Bible,
this would be
the very last book
that he read.
So the actual
original readers
of 2 Chronicles
are not those
Israelites who are there
at the moment
with Solomon,
but they are the
generation of Israelites
who had returned
from exile.
They're the ones
who had returned
from Babylonian
captivity.
So I want us
to imagine
reading 2 Chronicles
like this generation
of post-exilic
Israelites,
right?
Imagine being
a post-exilic
Jewish person
reading this account
in 2 Chronicles
chapter 6 and 7.
You're back
in your homeland
but you don't have
a king, right?
And technically
you are still
under the jurisdiction
of the Persian Empire.
Now imagine
reading this event,
Solomon's prayer,
God's response,
the fire coming down
and God promising,
promising that he
would definitely
hear his people's
prayers at
Solomon's temple.
But then you look
outside your window,
right?
Do you see
Solomon's temple?
No, you see
the second temple
that you yourself
built post-exile
and you are told
that this second temple
pales in comparison
to the original temple
that Solomon had built
where the fire came down
and God met
his people.
So like what
do you do
with these
century-old promises
that were given
to Solomon
and those people
back in verses
14 and following?
When God said
hundreds of years earlier,
if my people
who are called
by my name
will humble
themselves and pray
and seek my face
and turn from
their wicked ways,
then I will hear
from heaven
and I will forgive
their sin
and will heal
their land.
Now my eyes
will be open
and my ears attentive
to the prayers
offered in this place.
I have chosen
and consecrated
this temple,
God said,
so that my name
may be there forever.
My eyes and my heart
will always be there.
What do we do
with that kind of a promise
that's so tied
to Solomon's temple,
right?
If we put ourselves
in the shoes
of the original readers
of 2 Chronicles,
it would be really confusing,
I think,
to read these words
and figure out
how they exactly
applied to us.
God,
you said you'd be attentive
to the prayers
offered in Solomon's temple,
but what about our temple?
You said your name
and your eyes
and your heart
would be there forever,
but we messed up
and we were actually exiled.
We turned from you
and the temple,
the original temple
where you made these promises,
it's gone.
So where is your name now?
Where are your eyes?
Where is your heart now?
Are you still with us?
Do you still see us?
Is your heart still for us
or has our sin
disqualified us
once and for all
and is our land
beyond the possibility
of healing?
While Solomon
and the assembly before him
saw the fire come down
and while they received
the promise of God
to meet them
in their temple,
these original readers
of 2 Chronicles,
these 2 Temple Israelites
were left in the same shoes
many of us
find ourselves in today,
posing the same question
as Dear Evan Hansen.
Might it be
that we will go on unseen,
unheard,
unloved
for the rest of our lives?
For while the first Temple Israelites
had their own son of David,
their own wise king
pleading on their behalf
for the presence of God,
their own consecrated Temple
upon which the very fire
and glory of God's presence
visibly descended,
what did the second Temple Israelites
have?
And what do we have
to assure us
that God sees us,
that God hears us,
that God loves us,
that we have his eyes,
his ears,
and his heart,
that the forgiveness
of our sins
and the healing of our land
are possible?
What assurance do we have?
I mean,
if only we too
had a son of David,
right?
An all-wise king
to plead with God
on our behalf.
If only we had
maybe even a son of God
whose requests
would never be refused
by his Father.
If only we had a temple,
a glorious point
of access to God,
a place for a real experience
of the presence of God
here with us on earth.
If only we had
such an incorruptible Temple
that even if it was
violently torn down,
it could rise again
in three days.
If only, right?
Or is that not
what we have
in the person
of Jesus Christ?
The better and ultimate
son of David,
a king who,
while crowned with thorns,
begs his father
to forgive them
for they know not
what they do.
And by his wounds,
we are healed.
Jesus is the ultimate temple
who grafts us in
and even makes us
a temple with him
of the very Spirit of God
dwelling within us,
a spirit interceding for us
with groans
too deep for words.
You know,
in the musical
Dear Evan Hansen,
the kind of big
feel-good song
of the show
is this song
where he preaches
the good news
to all the misfits
that you will be found.
You'll be heard,
you'll be seen,
you will be found.
There's a place
where we don't have
to be alone.
But it's never really clear
how he can guarantee that.
It's never really clear
how this is anything more
than a wishful encouragement
that outsiders will be seen
and heard
and loved.
But you know
the beauty of the gospel
is that in Christ
we have the guarantee.
We have the Spirit
crying within us,
not just you will be found
but Abba,
Father,
you have already been found.
Our Father in heaven
has seen his prodigal children
when they were so far off
that they could not
even see him
and he has run to us
in the person of Christ.
And just as God promised
to David's son,
King Solomon,
that he and his people
would have his eyes,
his ears,
and his very heart.
Guess what?
All the promises of God
are yes and amen
in Jesus Christ.
And so much more
has he promised
to David's son,
King Jesus,
that he and his people
will always and forever
have eyes,
have his ears,
and his very heart.
And this,
this is the gospel.
The promise
of prayer.
The privilege
of prayer
secured for us,
guaranteed
in Christ.
Christ.
So Christ,
let us be
a people of prayer.
Let us be
a church of prayer.
Christ,
let us be
a people
of humble,
personal,
penitent prayer.
And not just because
we got to,
but because we
get to
in Christ.
Let's pray.
Lord,
these are your words.
Let's pray.
If we will
humble ourselves
and pray
and seek your face
and turn from
our wicked ways,
then you will
hear from heaven.
You said it.
I will
hear from heaven.
You didn't say,
I might hear from heaven.
You didn't say,
I'll think about
hearing from heaven.
You said,
I will
hear from heaven
and forgive
their sins
and heal
their land.
Impress upon us,
Lord,
the privilege
of prayer.
Help us to assume
the posture
of prayer
and help us
to glory
in the promise
of prayer
made possible
by Jesus Christ,
the great
son of David,
the temple
we never deserved,
who has come
near to us
and brought us
to you
at great,
great cost
to himself.
We love you,
God,
and we want
to love you more.
So would you do
that in us,
we pray.
In the name
of Jesus,
amen.
Amen.