If My People....4

SORRY IF THIS IS CONFUSING, BUT BLOGGER DOES THINGS THIS WAY.
IF YOU WANT TO FOLLOW THIS SERIES OF SERMONS GO DOWN TO If My People....1 WHICH IS BELOW (MAYBE EVEN IN 'Older Posts'). THEN WORK YOUR WAY UP TO THIS ONE WHICH IS NUMBER 4

2Chron 7v14 ‘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 will I hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin and heal their land.’

PENTECOST 2008

This is the day of Pentecost, the time Peter and the 11 had been waiting for.
Jesus had ascended to the Father, after promising the Holy Spirit to the disciples. ‘Wait’, he said.
Waiting is not something we are particularly good at is it?:
…. not something many of us do well. Our culture engenders a sort of vending machine mentality in us. We want things instantly.
Waiting in the Bible is not killing time, however.
‘I waited patiently for the Lord’, says the Psalmist (Ps 40)
‘They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength’ (Is 40)
Far from killing time it is an active waiting. Not trying to engineer for ourselves what God has promised he will do. But using the waiting time effectively.
I believe that God longs to visit His people again in power, indeed we are in a waiting time just now.

Those words read to us from Leviticus 26 are to me such a clear statement by God of His love for His covenant people. If we translate it into the New Testament, since Jesus we Christians are His covenant people. Look at the opening of Ephesians and 1 Peter and the language. He has shown his love for us in Christ, ‘while we were yet sinners.’(Romans).
He longs to lavish His gifts of love on us.
But we have rejected His offer and closed the door.
We are afraid of where He might take us if we let Him have free reign in our lives.
If the first third of Lev 26 is about the overflowing blessing God gives if we obey Him, the other two-thirds is about what happens if we disobey, and it makes grim reading.

Friends, we live in times when God is not getting through to us, not because of anything He has done, but because we have moved away from Him.
Our society, with a reducing Christian influence to keep it going in the right direction, is sinking into an abyss of crime, drugs, broken lives, selfishness, perversion and murder of unborn children.
It’s a mess, isn’t it?
God told Solomon what to do when things get in a mess.

There’s only one answer, God said, it’s this….
‘If my people….’ 2 Chron 7v14

In this time of waiting therefore, His people, that’s us, we need to do four things.
I have talked about these previously.
We need to
humble ourselves
and pray
and seek His face
and turn from our wicked ways.
These things I have outlined in previous sermons.

Let’s get rid of the pride which says ‘I’m alright’, or ‘I’m better than them.’ Humble ourselves. Pray and seek God’s face. We can’t do that without a significant commitment of time, personally and corporately. ‘What do you want to say to us, Lord?’ ‘What do you want us to do, Lord.?’
…and then to get rid of everything that stands in the way of our relationship with God…our wicked ways. ‘Wicked’ you say … ‘Not me!’
So every part of your life, your money and time is surrendered to God??
He is first in your life??
I wish I could stand up and say ‘Yes’ to that, but I know there is still some unfinished business. But I want more than all else to be His true servant.

Let us take hold of this Berlin Wall that we have erected against God, and through these four steps demolish it once and for all.

For then the promise will come to fulfilment.
I WILL hear. Hallelujah !
I WILL forgive their sin. Amen.
I WILL heal their land. Amen and hallelujah!
What a promise!

The Spirit will come again as on the first day of Pentecost. Are we ready for this?

Selwyn Hughes writes:
In a conference some years ago I met a missionary who told me his story. ‘I came back from the Mission a broken and dispirited man and was given up to die. My doctor said he could do nothing for me. A friend visited me one night and said, "I know what’s wrong with you… you have hatred and bitterness buried so deeply in your heart that you can’t see it. I’m going to lay hands on you and pray for God’s help." Before he could do so I broke down and wept. "Yes". I cried, "I know, I’m a bitter and angry man. O God forgive me".’
‘Suddenly, the Holy Spirit fell on me. I felt Him burn up the anger that was deep within me; I got up and have never had a day’s sickness since.’

One of my heroes is Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf.
Yes, I know, trust me to choose someone with a name like that for a hero!

Let me tell you the story of the man and the people whose lives touched John Wesley and were instrumental in his conversion:

An amazing transformation came to the Moravians gathered in Herrnhut in Germany on August 13, 1727. The Christian History Institute has the following recorded: "On August 5, Zinzendorf and fourteen of the brethren spent the entire night in conversation and prayer. On August 10th, a pastor by the name of Rothe was so overcome by God’s nearness during an afternoon service that he threw himself down on the ground during prayer and called to God with words of repentance as he had never done before. The congregation was moved to tears and continued until midnight, praising God and singing." The next morning a communion service was planned for Wednesday, August 13th. The institute continues: "Count Zinzendorf visited every house in Herrnhut in preparation for the Lord’s Supper. Everyone had come to a conviction of their sinfulness, need, and helplessness. During the service, they made many painful prayers for themselves, for fellow Christians still under persecution, and for their continued unity. At that time Count Zinzendorf made a penitential confession in the name of the entire congregation."

"Then prayers of great unction arose from the brethren as they interceded for each other and those who were still living under persecution in Moravia." Suddenly with the sound of a mighty rushing wind, the power of the Holy Spirit swept across the congregation in waves. The noise was loud enough that many in the church looked toward the windows expecting to see a gale raging outside. The manifestation of the Spirit was not relegated within the four walls of the church, but fell throughout the whole community. Men, women, and children were touched as a passion for God and His purpose swept through their hearts.

Zinzendorf gives us an account of this wonderful occurrence: "August 13th was a day of the outpourings of the Holy Spirit upon the congregation; it was it’s Pentecost!"...It was such a sense of the nearness of Christ bestowed in a single moment upon all members of the community at once; it was so unanimous that two members, at work twenty miles away, unaware that the meeting was being held, became at the same moment smitten with the same blessing and anointing."

One Moravian remembers: "We had stopped judging each other because we had become convinced, each one, of his lack of worth in the sight of God. On that day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we saw the hand of God and His wonders. We were all under the cloud of the Father baptised with His Spirit. As the Holy Ghost came upon us, great signs and wonders took place in our midst. From that time, scarcely a day passed but what we beheld His almighty workings amongst us. A great hunger after the word of God took possession of us, so that we had to have three services every day. Everyone desired above everything else that the Holy Spirit might have full control. Self-love and self-will as well as all disobedience disappeared and an overwhelming flood of grace swept us all out into the great ocean of Divine Love." What happened that August day at Herrnhut left the participants with a wonderful faith for Jesus Christ. They left the house of God that noon "hardly knowing whether they belonged to earth or had already gone to Heaven".

Again Zinzendorf explains: "The Saviour permitted to come upon us a Spirit of whom we had hitherto not had any experience or knowledge. Hitherto WE had been the leaders and helpers. Now the Holy Spirit Himself took full control of everything and everybody."

I’ll tell you what…
I want that.
Do you?

If my people....3

2Chron 7v14 ‘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 will I hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin and heal their land.’

What are our wicked ways?
My wicked ways. Your wicked ways.
If this condition for God to come and forgive and heal, even to hear from heaven in the first place, includes repentance, what do we need to repent of?

Let’s just examine the basics of the gospel and consider where we as believers have come to in our journey of faith..
God is a holy, loving God and will have no truck with sin.
The Bible says ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’. This we know. We may not have murdered anybody, but we know if we’re honest that we’re sinners and we’ll never measure up.
That’s our position….and like the monkey in the Jungle Doctor story, we can pull and pull upwards by our bootstraps but the quicksand will still take us down. We have no hope…unless someone throws us a lifeline. God came in Jesus to do just that.
Jesus bore in his own body on the cross the full weight of the world’s sin…including mine and yours. The price was paid in blood. His blood avails for me…is available, works for me here, 2000 years later.

The Bible says that if we repent, that is turn from our sin, and believe in Jesus, we will be saved. Turn, take, trust is one of the simplest ways of describing what we must do to avail ourselves of the finished work of Christ for us:
Turn from sin
Take the free gift of forgiveness, and eternal life
Trust in God and follow Jesus for the rest of your life.
If we do this in sincerity of heart, we are saved, and Jesus by his Holy Spirit comes to live in us. We know for ourselves that we are on a journey to heaven, and set out with joy and determination.

But the devil, having lost someone from his dominion to the Kingdom of God, is equally determined to try and get us back. So he appeals to our human nature, what the King James Version of the Bible calls ‘the flesh’, and subtly over time leads us to displace Christ from the number one place in our lives. In the old days it was called backsliding. The early joy we experience slowly disperses and we look around and observe that other Christians are also like this, become highly suspicious of people who never lose their joy, stop talking with each other about what God is doing, and in due course He doesn’t appear to be active in our lives any more.
When our consciences were sharp we used to know right from wrong, and avoid evil, and confess and receive forgiveness whenever we sinned. Now, we may feel guilty from time to time, but we gloss over our sins, declare that we are after all better than ‘him’ or ‘her’, and wonder what went wrong.

Every Sunday morning, backsliders gather as they have always done….and they go home unchanged and unchallenged. They are gospel hardened. They have become convinced that this is all there is….but there must be more than this!

There is!

But let us look at the consequences of all of this nominal Christianity. The salt has lost its savour. The light has grown dim. No longer to people look at Christians and want what they’ve got, because they don’t look any different.

Here’s a quote from John Henry Howard writing in 1910:
"We leave our places of worship and no deep and inexpressible wonder sits upon our faces. When we get out on the streets our faces are as one with those of the people coming out of the theatres and music halls. There is nothing about us to suggest that we have been looking at anything stupendous or overwhelming. I remember an old saint telling me that after some services he liked to make his way home alone by quiet paths so that the hush of the Almighty might remain on his awed and prostrate soul. This is the element we are losing."

A hundred years ago... What has changed?
Well. we have become even more 'worldy'.
Slowly but surely society has changed for the worse. Abortion, drugs, broken families, increased crime, overcrowded prisons, laws passed which are anti-Christian, selfishness is rife, bitterness, cynicism and hatred, while the church declines and fails to make any impact.
Two of our churches have recently closed. A number of the others are going nowhere and will soon no longer be viable.
Are we going to sit on our hands and let this happen?
How can we recover our Christian heritage?
How can we make this land a Christian country once again?

Well, God’s got plans. And they involve you and me. Revival will come. Instead of a handful of people as we are, there will not be enough room here for everyone to get in, there will be such a hunger for God’s word.

It’s Pentecost next Sunday. The first Pentecost 3000 people were converted through one sermon. Nowadays (as someone said)it takes 3000 sermons to convert one person.
I have done a few less than that:
In the last couple of years, however, I preached five sermons on Cell values...
Jesus at the Centre,
Every Member Ministry,
Every Member Witnessing,
Every Member Growing,
a Community of Love.
And then I began to preach four sermons on the Future of Methodism, and how we are going down the tube unless we rediscover Prayer, Worship, Evangelism and Small Groups. I called them 'Getting Serious'.
Then I preached on encouragement, remember? Part of the verse from Eph 4 reads: "Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behaviour. Instead, be kind to each other, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you."
Then I began a series on the key verse we visit today.
I have been honestly telling you what I believe God is saying.

All of this is preparation for what God is about to do. But He is waiting for us to really get serious, to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, turn from our wicked ways…repent. That’s the theme tonight. Then the answer will come. When there is the deep and sincere desire to get rid of our 'idols', get self off the throne and serve God alone. Then He will hear from heaven, forgive, heal the land…Hallelujah!

So I’m calling you, and calling me too, to prepare for this Pentecost by prayer and repentance. Saturday is a special prayer day. But let’s do something now. We’re going to make it personal.
Write down your sins. No-one is going to see what you’ve written, only God. Go to be alone in different parts of this sanctuary. Be alone with God. Will you get serious with God? Say to God ….I turn from my sin. I want to be free again. I repent of all my wicked ways.

Then we’ll proclaim together that our sins are forgiven and put the bits of paper through this shredder.

Prayer:
Thankyou Lord that you died and bore all my sins and you are here to forgive and give me a fresh start. Cleanse me deep within and fill me with your Spirit. Go with me every moment of every day. …Make me a bright light in the darkness, help me to be unselfish, loving, and determined to stand up for truth and against injustice. To give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to labour and not to seek for any reward save that we know we are doing your will.
Holy Spirit we wait for you.

If my people.....2

2Chron 7v14 ‘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 will I hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin and heal their land.’

If my people…will pray, and seek my face
We return to this most important verse of Scripture.
There must be more than this
Is there more to life than this?
We have got so used to doing church in the way we do it, and have become so resigned to the church’s decline in size and influence in our society that we think nothing is ever going to change.

Well, I want to say something and I want to nail this down.
Nothing will change unless we do something. Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.
But if we get serious about our Christian Faith, and start to prioritise God’s Kingdom in our lives, then we will be opening the door to the love and power of God. And.. I am going to say to you with all boldness this morning… ‘Glory belongs to God, whose power is at work in us. By this power he can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine’. Eph 3v20
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him” (I Corinthians 2:9).
You ain’t seen nothing yet!

When things are in a mess…
This is the context of our verse.
When things are in a mess… ‘ 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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.’
Do you need convincing that things are in a mess? Let me assure you that things are going to get a lot lot worse unless we, God’s people act.
It’s not up to ‘them’ to act, whoever ‘they’ are.
It’s up to us, the people called by His name, to act.
How?
By humbling ourselves. We talked about humility last morning service I was here,

By prayer,
We looked at that last Sunday night.
We pray to the Father,
through the Son,
by the Spirit,
against the devil,
with the saints,
in faith,
nothing wavering,
with persistence,
without ceasing,
using the Lord’s prayer,…

The third phrase is for today:
And seek my face. This is closely linked with prayer.
Let’s explore together some verses in the Bible.
First of all FACE. Seek my FACE.

In the Old Testament, Israel believed that to look upon God’s face meant instant death.
However, here’s a couple of verses:
Numbers 6:25
The Lord bless you and keep you: The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you: The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.
Psalms 119:135
Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes.

Do we want to seek His face?
How do you see God’s face when He looks upon you?
Oh that we would seek His wonderful, loving face. What blessing would be ours.

Let’s explore ‘SEEK’ in the Bible.
SEEK my face,….
Deuteronomy 4:29
But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
Ezra 8:21
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones...
Psalms 63:1
O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
Psalms 70:4
Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.
Isaiah 55:6
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
Jeremiah 29:13
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Hosea 10:12
break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
Matt.6.33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Heb.11.6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Seek my face.
Believers must make time and space to fully and effectively encounter the God who is ‘more ready to hear than we to pray’.
Prayer at its highest is a two-way conversation.

Richard Foster says:
Prayer catapults us on to the frontier of the Christian life. Of all the Spiritual disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father.

Jean de Chantal says:
…..spend the appointed time of prayer quietly and peacefully, doing nothing in God’s presence, content simply to be there.

O. Hallesby , in his great classic ‘Prayer’, begins the book by quoting Rev. 3:20, ‘Listen, I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me’. (NRSV)
To pray is to let Jesus come into our hearts…..
It is well known that it is more difficult to hold one’s breath than it is to breathe….The air which our souls need also envelops us at all times and on all sides. God is round about us in Christ on every hand, with His many-sided and all-sufficient grace. All we need to do is open our hearts.
All he needs is access. He enters in of His own accord, because He desires to come in. And He enters in wherever He is not denied admittance. As air enters in quietly when we breathe….so Jesus enters quietly into our hearts and does His blessed work there.

A modern contemplative uses the same metaphor:
….. words from a Lenten Hymn ‘while I breathe I pray’…….made this clear. I saw my life, looking back, as having a single common thread – the prayer that God has been praying in me even when I have not been praying. I cannot exist without prayer as the breath of my life.

The art of praying resides in slowing up sufficiently to be able to bathe in God’s warmth and light. Sunbathing…….And the central problem with that in our restless culture is the difficulty of turning up and staying there, in the sun.

So we see the need to discover this important area of prayer and in quiet contemplation experience the living Christ at work in our lives, making us more like Him. This is the filling, joy-imparting, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit within.

Joyce Huggett describes her own experience of the work of the Holy Spirit, and her prayer life is transformed from incessant petition to a discovery of God’s inner presence:
…'.
I could no longer fight off the new surge of life with which He filled me. I have no words to describe what happened. I simply remember that I tingled with joy. The next day I was buoyant with this joy……I no longer felt hungry in prayer. I could not stop myself praying……But the nature of the prayer had changed. It ceased to be a string of requests, a tirade of questionings, beseeching and plaguings. Instead, the sense of the presence of God’s life within stunned me into silence. This awed silence gave birth to wordless praise. wordless adoration and wordless consecration of my life to Him. Silence. Wordlessness. This was what the monk had been describing to me. A fresh touch from God.
I believe this is the place to begin with our prayers.'

We cannot ‘live’ spiritually without prayer and worship. If we neglect these disciplines we shrivel up and die in spirit, we become worldly in outlook and self-centred, and our relationships suffer.

Serving Christ in the world and evangelism are essential but they are no substitute for prayer and worship, and we will achieve little if we do not begin with God.
On the other hand if we take time to pray we will grow and flourish spiritually, God will indwell us by His Holy Spirit, we will know for certain our sins are forgiven and no guilt will remain, we will cease to be anxious, we will long for others to experience for themselves the ‘abundant life’ we have discovered, we will have our eyes opened to see through God’s eyes and to feel some of His pain which will lead us to into compassionate living and self-sacrifice.
We will have seen the face of God, and know His will.

If my people will pray, and seek my face, and turn.. then will I hear, will forgive, will heal

Can we do that now? Really seek His face...

If my people....1

This is the first of the series based on 2Chron 7v14 ‘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 will I hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin and heal their land.’ delivered on Remembrance Sunday 2007:


I think the last time I was here to preach (apart from Church on the Move) was exactly 9 months ago. Had you noticed? I had an inkling then that it would be a big gap and carefully chose my subject. Who can remember what it was? Encourage one another. I have seen some of that going on, good, but there is still much more needed.
Encourage one another, people.
What’s the message today then?
Well, our focus in worship revolves around the question: As we remember those who fought for our freedom, what are we doing with it? Free for what? Are we making real progress in our church, our community, our nation and our world? After the Queen’s Speech this week, how many Government reforms will really be progress, and how many cut across our core beliefs as Christians?
Tough questions. Politically charged I know. But if Methodism, and indeed the other churches in this country are not to go down the tube, we have to stop pussyfooting around and stand up against the wholesale abandonment of Christian values which is going on around us. It has often been said that God has no hands on earth but those of His people. Then it is time to stop sitting on our hands or wringing our hands and start using our hands for God.
We thank and thank God for the freedom we have in this country obtained for us at immense cost, firstly freedom from tyranny, and secondly freedom to practice our faith openly without persecution. But we are on the edge of seeing the second of those change for the worse. Changes in charity law, the religious hatred bandwagon, and the sexual orientation regulations, amongst others, are not in our favour, rather the opposite. Some Christians have already found themselves in trouble with the law for speaking out.
With rising violence and deteriorating morality, how we need God to heal our nation. This text has been pursuing me for some time:

2Chron 7v14 ‘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 will I hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin and heal their land.’
If our goal is the healing of the land, then what are the prerequisites?
We can no longer remain a club of people with the same interests meeting on a Sunday. Methodists began not as a church but as a movement…a movement which transformed 18th century society…how can we get moving again?

Later we will begin to try and answer this. It may take us months, or even a year to get through this, but if we are serious change will happen.
I have come to realise how important was the message God gave me in February. It is so, so, so important that we encourage one another in the days ahead, for if we do not we by default become discouraged, and that is a slippery slope.

‘If my people…’
The context of this message to Solomon was God’s filling of the newly built Temple with His glory to such so powerfully that the priests could not do their work. It was a wonderful occasion, such as we experienced to some extent at the rededication of this sanctuary. God promised to stick around as long as His people obeyed Him, but when the people went astray He warned of disaster. But with that warning God graciously provided a way back. Hope. Judgement would be averted if…

Who are ‘my people who are called by my name’? Under the Old Covenant, Israel. Under the New Covenant of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who are ‘my people’ now? Us. The Christians.

What more important message could there be today for God’s people in this country? On the downward slope to disaster. Can the tide be turned? Can we get back to Christian values? Can disaster be averted? The message is for us, for us….not for non-Christians. God is saying to US, get your act together, my people. ‘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 will I hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin and heal their land.’
‘If my people will….then I will’. It’s a powerful promise, and if we truly believe, He will do it. The transformation of our lives and those around us. He will do it.

The four prerequisites then.
1 Humility
2 Prayer
3 Seeking the face of God
4 Turning from our wicked ways.

Today we will look at the first of these:

Humility
My people must humble themselves.
James 4v10: Humble yourselves before the Lord and God will lift you up.
Humility is not natural. It is not high on our "felt need" list. In fact, it is not something we realise we need to deal with. I realise you need to deal with it. But we don't tend to realise it about ourselves. However, it tops God's priority list. In the sixth verse it says: "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." When we fail to deal with humility, we sabotage God's purpose and the well-being of those around us.

In ancient Egypt Pharaoh had all the Jewish people in captivity, building the pyramids. This is what God's message was to Pharaoh: Exodus 10:3
3: So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.
How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me, Pharaoh? Not only did Pharaoh mess up the lives of the Jewish people as slaves, but because of his own lack of humility, Pharaoh caused the plagues to come upon his own people, and ultimately caused the death of his own son. When we don't deal with humility, we sabotage God's purpose and the well- being of everyone around us. Contrast Pharaoh with Moses. Why did God choose Moses?
This is what Numbers 12:3 says: "The man, Moses, was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth." Humble people are the only people God can use.

Look at Luke 14:7-11
‘Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he marked how they chose the places of honour, saying to them, "When you are invited by any one to a marriage feast, do not sit down in a place of honour, lest a more eminent man than you be invited by him; and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give place to this man,' and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, 'Friend, go up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you .For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Jesus noticed that at parties people always scramble for the best seat at the table. They always want the place of honour and recognition.
Listen to what Jesus said: "For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.".
I am working on that. What does it mean to take the servant's seat? I don't know, but I am working at it. You see, there is something in me that always wants the best seat, the first plateful.

If I could just daily pray the prayer of John the Baptist - "I must decrease and Christ must increase." Every day there has to be less of Mike and more of Jesus Christ. It’s about identifying myself with Jesus' interests; rather than identifying Jesus with my interests.

God says, "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves" the first thing to revival is to humble yourself. God says, "If you want to avert disaster, humble yourself."
But aren’t we good at exalting ourselves rather than humbling ourselves?
Pride permeates us, and we begin to look around and say, "Well, I am driving a Jag, Lexus, Mercedes and that makes me better than the guy that's got the Vauxhall. "

Somebody has got white skin, and she's better than somebody that has dark skin. Somebody came from the UK, so he's better than somebody that came from Poland. Somebody makes £30,000 a year, so he's better than somebody that makes £20,000.

Somebody is an executive, so he's better than somebody who is a labourer. Somebody is better educated. Somebody has an MA, so she's better than somebody else.
He's a professional person, he's a doctor or lawyer, so he's superior to somebody who doesn't have those skills.

And you feel proud. And I've got more money in the bank, therefore, I'm better than he is, or she is. And it's like the pharisee and the tax collector. The pharisee said "God, I thank you because I'm not like these other people. I fast, and I give a tithe, and I do these religious things, and I thank you that I'm not like this dodgee tax man." And the tax collector said, "Be merciful to me a sinner." Jesus said he went home justified.

But the pharisee prayed with himself. He wasn't even talking to God. God isn't interested in hearing how great you are. What God is interested in is having somebody who is humble and of a contrite spirit .
Someone who says "God, start with me. I deserve hell."

You go back over your life, and you start thinking of the things that you've done, and there is no way that you're entitled to heaven. None of us are!
We need to come before God and say, "I need a Saviour." If righteousness came from the law, then the cross is of no effect. And that would nullify the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

That's what pride does. Pride says, "I don't need a saviour. I’m Ok. I don’t need to repent." But humility says, "I must have a Saviour." Humility says, "Without the cross, I am lost."

And that's where you come to the point where God can begin to do something for you and with you.
‘If my people will humble themselves…..’
That’s where we begin to turn the corner in our lives and in the life of our nation.

Please bow your head and pray with me. Silently pray for the person on your right. Pray that God will strengthen them and strengthen their intention to grow today, to say yes to God, to remove any of the obstacles that would cause that person to be less than who God is calling them to be today. Now pray for the person on your left. Pray the same, that God will strengthen their will to be fully obedient and committed to Christ's call upon their life today. Remove any obstacles or barriers, physical, spiritual, relational, that keeps them from being totally humble before you Lord. It is in Your name, Lord, that we pray. Amen

…and we pray as we sing, ‘Lord have your way with us…’
Stay seated, sing if you like or bow your head and listen to the words and pray them in your heart.
Light a candle or write a post it note as an offering to God if you wish.
Ask for prayer. Surrender to Jesus, for the first time, or come back again to Him.