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.
2 Chron. 7:14
This Scripture was posted on Facebook this week. No explanation. Just puttin’ it out there for us to focus on for a couple of days. This tells me that there is a way out of this bad place that we find ourselves in right now. It starts with humbling ourselves. Can we do that?
Leavin’ that there while we talk about the sermon. Based on Kings 11-13, while King Solomon was on the throne. He was the wisest man on earth. Wisdom that he was blessed with by God because he was loyal to God and he followed God’s laws and direction.
He had 700 wives and 300 concubines! I can’t even imagine having that many people on my friends list on Facebook, let along having to deal with them personally. They led King Solomon astray. Solomon’s heart had turned away from God. Solomon had temples built for all his wives so they could each worship their gods.
What?! I know. One of the explicit things God said to Solomon was to never follow other gods and He would always be with Solomon. You can read of the downfall of Solomon in the book of Kings He ends up dying and the kingdom is split into the rulership of two kings. One the son of Solomon, Rehoboam, the other one of Solomon’s advisors, Jeroboam.
This seems strangely like the division we are going through right now. Each side pointing the finger at the other. But you know what? I can’t do anything about what other people do, but I can follow God and do what he demands of us. Being humble requires us to be in constant communication with God. Resisting the temptation to rise up above others, thinking your way is the right way, is not going to be easy. We each think that the way we see things is right and we want everyone else to come around to our way of seeing things.
Everything we need is found in God’s Words.
Truer words were never spoken. Not sure how you should respond to a situation? You’ll find words of wisdom to guide you through any trials of your life if you seek them. Pray often. God listens to you and then you must listen for his reply. He may not speak vocally, like we’re used to, but it might be a strong feeling that overcomes you or God may bring someone into your life to help out the situation. Just remember if it’s from God it will be backed up by Scripture.
Prophets may lie. Read in Kings 13 about the prophet that was lured to go against God’s explicit directions and it cost him his life. Any of us can succumb to the relentless pursuit of Satan and his determination to lure us away from God, but we must be even more stubborn and entrenched in the Word of God.
Often we want to blame the person or thing that caused us to fall from the grace of God. But that doesn’t fly with God.
When Peter saw him (John), he asked, “Lord, what about him?”
Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”
John 21:21-22
We can’t ask God, “What about them? Look what they did!” Because as far as we are concerned that is between them and God. We are responsible for our actions.
- Humility is the catalyst to relationship, forgiveness, and healing
- Corporate humility will never happen without personal humility
- Tend your own garden
As our pastor, Jon, summed up the sermon some of our take-aways should be
- The wisest man in history was led astray
- It is not asking too much that our leaders follow God…
- But it is foolish to assume that they are just because they say so and we want desperately to believe them. This is a wakeup call for the church
- We fail as Christians when we settle for a “that’s close enough” Gospel
- Christians should now do what they should have done for the past four years – support policies that align with Christian principles and oppose and criticize policies that do not. In everything else = grace.
- No president deserves blind support or categorical rejection.
- The greatest threats come when we loosen our commitment to God’s commands that seem to constrain us from partaking in the normal pleasures everyone else enjoys
- But God did not call us to be normal. He did not call us to be right
- He called us to be righteous.
- “Give us this day our daily bread and lead us not into temptation”.
- Christ first, then bread
Listen to the sermon here! Relevant, real.
In Faith,
Pam
Where God Leads 
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