ON Learning from Chronicles Sermon 3 of 8

ON Learning from Chronicles Sermon 3 of 8 January 19 th 2020 “How Did We Get Here? ” 2 Chronicles 7: 11 -22 Page 684

N Questions… OTwo • 1. Do you know the history of this congregation? • 2. Have you ever hauled rocks or moved rocks?

Making ON a Connection • Have you started a project that just about did you in from exhaustion? • Can you think of a time when you were doing a difficult task and you wondered, not only “what am I doing” but also “how did I get here?

Connecting… N O • I have moved my fair share of rocks!! • But not for 52 straight days while carrying a sword… • When things get difficult it helps to remind ourselves why we are doing what we are doing.

Imagine… N O • Imagine hauling rocks and doing mason work in the dessert area of Jerusalem …around the whole city. • The length of the walls is 4, 018 meters (2. 4966 mi), their average height is 12 meters (39. 37 feet) and the average thickness is 2. 5 meters (8. 2 feet).

Those Doing the Work N O O • The people who were at work doing the repairs were the returned exiles who grew up in Babylon. • They could see the level of destruction and in their fatigue, I think they had the question “how did we get here? ” • Knowing the answer to that question helps each generation learn from the past and take their steps into the future.

2 Accounts. N O • In 1 Kings 8 -9 we have the record of the dedication of the Temple in Solomon’s time. • 1 Kings gives us the forewarning while the temple is brand new and a beacon leading the nations around Israel towards God. • 2 Chronicles is looking at the same building, but it is in bad shape…

2 Chronicles 6 -7 on pages 680 -685 N O • 2 Chronicles 6: 16 -17 where God promises David to protect the kingship if… • 6: 18 ““But will God really dwell on earth with men? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” • 6: 19 -31 records the request that God listen to prayer with mercy and forgiveness.

N 2 O Chronicles 6: 30 -31 • “then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive, and deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of men), 31 so that they will fear you and walk in your ways all the time they live in the land you gave our fathers. ”

2 Chronicles ON 6 • 6: 31 -33 requests that God listen to the foreigner. • 6: 34 -35 asks that God listen to their prayers even if they are at war somewhere else.

2 Chronicles 6: 36 -39 N O Solomon’s Request… • 2 Ch 6: 36 “When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to a land far away or near; 37 and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity and say, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong and acted wickedly’; …

2 Chronicles 6: 36 -39 N O Solomon’s Request… • … 38 and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity where they were taken, and pray toward the land you gave their fathers, toward the city you have chosen and toward the temple I have built for your Name; 39 then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their pleas, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you.

ON Oh, Got It! • Oh, now it makes sense! We turned away from God and he no longer stopped us, so we brought this trouble onto ourselves and now we need to work at fixing things.

ON Why This Text? • As we read today’s main text, I want us to connect with the blessings and consequences connected to obedience that are mentioned here by God to Solomon back in the time of the dedication of the temple…that one that this audience is currently rebuilding…

2 Chronicles 7: 11 -22 on ON page 684: • 11 When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace, 12 the LORD appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.

2 Chronicles 7: 11 -22 N O • 13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

2 Chronicles 7: 11 -22 N O • 17 “As for you, if you walk before me as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, 18 I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a man to rule over Israel. ’

2 Chronicles 7: 11 -22 N O • 19 “But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword an object of ridicule among all peoples. …

2 Chronicles 7: 11 -22 N O • … 21 And though this temple is now so imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land to this temple? ’ 22 People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them. ’”

ON Forewarned!! • As they are stacking rocks in the hot sun in front of their mocking neighbours, they can remind themselves that their parents were warned and that although they did not keep their promise, God did.

Making N the Connection: O • When God warns us, He does so out of love because His ways is always the better way. • When we do anything (marriage, relationships, finances, faith, and church for example) our own way instead of God’s way; we are removing ourselves from God’s blessing and inviting trouble.

Making the Connection N O • During troubles from others or from ourselves. • It is good to ask God to show us “how did we get here? ” That knowledge helps us to make better decisions starting now.

Temple Repair N O • 2 Corinthians 6: 16 “we are the temple of the living God. ” • We work at reworking and repairing the church as the generation before us hands it over to our care. • Each generation needs to take up the work. • As they stay faithful to Jesus, He will bless their efforts and as they separate from Him, they will bring their own types of trouble.

3 Part Application N O • 1. The current “older Christians” need to pass on the history. They (we) need to help the next generation see what we have done and why as we teach them what we learned from those before us. • 2. Our “older Christians” need to pray for the next generation and prepare them for the transition of ownership and responsibility.

3 Part N Application O • 3. The next generation needs to take ownership with the freedom to stack rocks as they see how to fit them, as they consider the record of what they have learned from those before them. • Once again: To the next generation of church leaders we say: “You can (and must) do it; we can help!” The future is up to you.

How Did We Get Here? N O O • “Historical Photos!” • I will read a summary of our congregational history based on the one written by Ray for our 30 th anniversary in 2007.

ON The Next Steps…