R1322 When God’s People Call Out

God has an encouraging word for really my friends when it comes down to it in life. What really matters? What's important?

There's a lot to do. It seems to me like every time I turn around there's another person that needs a very special touch from the Lord. And you may be that person today. And I want you to know that God has something very special to say to you.

I really believe that. I want you to listen. I want you to listen real carefully. God has given me a word for us. So I'm just going to ask you to open your Bible to 2 Chronicles chapter 7. You know, as I stand here today, I have no idea what God is going to do in the next few moments.

Literally. I don't know. What I do know is this. Is that when the fire of the Lord comes down, things begin to happen. God begins to do something that we cannot possibly begin to describe.

So before I even begin to read to you what God has put in my word in my heart today for you, I want to make an obvious statement. And that statement is that our world is in trouble. Our world is in trouble. There are a lot of people writing about it and talking about it. Is it possible that the Lord Jesus is about to come? There's trouble in our cities.

You know it seems to me that there are three zones that are impacted. Number one, your person. My personhood. I am a person. You're a person.

You're a precious person. The first zone that God wants to take hold of is your person. And your person today may encompass who knows what. Maybe you've been diagnosed with something. Maybe you've gone through a difficult journey.

Maybe the doctors have not given you very good news. Your person is in distress. A game changer has taken place in your life. God loves you.

And I'm going to show you something in a minute concerning you. Because the Lord has got a special word just for you. And for me. For our person. For this body.

This person. This heart. Your heart that beats. The second zone is your place. In other words, the place where you find yourself.

Every person is surrounded by their place in life. And your place could be defined by your work situation. You know, your place as a father, as a mother. Your place in the community as a community leader. Your place as a father. You take this person and you put this person in a place.

And God, God wants to say something to you as a person in the place in which he has placed you. And then the third is your perimeter. A perimeter. I remember during army days, perimeters were very important to us.

We would be sent out on different types of excursions basically trying to form a perimeter. Trying to establish the outside zone of our inside life. And your perimeter, my perimeter involves the community in which I live.

It involves the country in which I live. It involves the world in which I live. That's my perimeter.

So there are three zones here that I want you to get ahold of. The first one is you. It's not about the person next to you. It's not even about your wife or your husband or your best friend. It's about you. It's about me. And the second one is the place you find yourself in.

As a husband, as a father, as a wife and a mother. That's your place. It's your place in life. It's your role as your person.

And the third is this vast arena, this perimeter. It's this world that surrounds us, that impacts us. What happens in America does affect my person.

And my person does affect what happens in my community and in my country and in my world. And we are living in urgent days. And the question that I'm asking of myself is do you and I really want God's eyes to be opened? And do we really want God to be attentive to us? Do you and I really want God's eyes to be opened? Do we want him to see us? Do we want him to pay attention to us? And the answer to that, I think is yes.

I do. I have friends who are going through deep waters. And really the bottom line is they want God's eyes to be open. And God, they want God to pay attention to, to be attentive to exactly what it is that is going on in their heart and in their life. And this is exactly what the Bible tells us here in Second Chronicles. The Bible tells us in no uncertain terms. Look at verse 15, for example, just of chapter seven. And I'm jumping the gun, but I want you to see this.

I want to begin at the back door, so to speak. Look at verse 15. Do we really believe that my friends? I'd like to just read that again. Now my eyes will be open and my ears will be attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. And in this context, talking about Solomon and the temple, God is speaking about the temple. He's talking about the church.

This place, this time, this opportunity, what we're doing right now is very, very important. Yes, God can speak to me in my home and in my motor car and in my fishing boat. And God can speak anywhere. And God can pay attention anywhere.

And he does. But there is something in the Bible about what God does in a particularly significant way in his house. And if you go back into these passages, I want you to just flip over to chapter six. Wasn't asking you to read that this morning, but chapter six, verse one. Look what happened in the life of Solomon. Then Solomon said the Lord has said that he would in fact dwell in thick darkness. I have built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell forever.

Let's just settle this. God tells us he is going to make his presence known in the thickest and darkest places. But there's something very, very wonderful and special about the temple, about the tabernacle, about the house of God.

This is what happened here. Go on to verse 12 of chapter six. Look what Solomon did. Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and he spread out his hands.

All right, let's go to chapter seven, verse one. As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven. That's what I'm praying. I'm praying for.

I'm praying for that in your person, in your place, and in your perimeter. The fire of God came down. All right, let's go to verse 11, chapter seven and verse 11. Then Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house and all that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord in his own house he successfully accomplished.

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so there is no rain or command the locust to devour the land or send pestilence among my people. If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face.

And turn from their wicked ways. Then will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated my house so that my name may be there forever.

My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. I just want to speak to you for a few moments about when God's people call out. And I've had to ask myself this question. I've had to say now what is it that I really want God to do? And I've had to ask myself this question because this is what was confronting Solomon. What is it that we are wanting God? What are we asking of the Lord?

What are you wanting of the Lord today? What are you asking God to do? What are we asking God to do? In our person personally?

In the place we find ourselves and in the world in which we find ourselves? What are we asking God to do? Well there are really three things that we're wanting God to do.

And I'm going to summarize them and come back and formalize these. We certainly want God to make himself known. We want God to make himself known, don't we?

I want God to make himself known. I just want to see him. I want to feel him. I want to touch him.

I want to hear him. We want God to make himself known. Number two, we want God to explain to us what's going on. I'm asking God to give me an explanation.

I want to know why some of my friends are hurting. I want to know why there is so much turmoil. I want to know what's going on. I want God to explain this to me because I think if God explains it to me, I just seem to think that I'm going to have a peace and an assurance and an understanding. I'm going to know what to do and where to do and how to do it. And number three, I want God to tell me what to do.

I want to know what I'm supposed to do. So here's the three frameworks that we are operating in. Because this passage here is about God's people calling on the name of the Lord. So there are three things that I think are very reasonable before the Lord, and it certainly manifested its life. Here was Solomon in all the turmoil in which they lived, rebuilt the temple, called upon the Lord, went back to sacrifice, renewed their sacrifice, went about prayer and fasting, seeking God's face, and the fire of God came down upon all those people. And something happened. Something began to happen that they couldn't explain.

It defied human logic. And it really encompassed the three deep questions of our hearts, the desires of our hearts, that we would want God to make himself known and we would want God to explain to us about ourselves and our sicknesses and our aspirations and our dreams. And we would want God to show us what to do.

I want my marching orders to come from him. I want to know how to pray. I want to know what advice to seek. I want to know how to deal with my pain. I want to know where to go with my sorrow. That's a great moment with more from Dr. Don, but as he's talking about dealing with our pain and our sorrow, you need to know we trust the promises of God to say he never leaves us or forsakes us, but we also are here for you 24 hours a day at eight six six eight nine nine word.

Word. We would love to pray for you. Jot the number down, store it in your cell, 866-899-9673. We'll always connect you with one of us, happy to talk or listen or pray. Now let's get back into today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilson.

With my questions, my struggles. So this passage here tells us that when God's people call out, these three things happen. Let me show you what happens. Number one, the Lord will appear. Look at verse 12. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon. When you call on his name, the Lord will appear.

It's a guarantee. God is going to show up. Number two, the Lord will explain everything. Look at verse 13.

When I shut up the heavens and when I do this and when I do that and how I did this and when I acted like this. And in fact, this passage and following is replete with a God explanation of the life in which they found themselves, including the person of the people, Solomon and the people individually. God encompassed the person and the place and the perimeter.

He took all three of these things. He appeared, he showed up, he made himself known. Can't tell you how many times over the last weeks that I can't explain it to you. I wish that I could explain. I wish that, you know, sometimes I say, you know, I wish that the light would suddenly just with respect to everybody sitting down there, but I wish the light would drop or that there would be a shaking of the earth or there would be something like that. And these things are happening.

I'm talking about us. The fact of the matter is there've been a number of times over the last months where I've just known that God has appeared to me. And secondly, that the Lord will explain. He explains. He, all of a sudden, you have the spiritual understanding of things that you and I find so hard to deal with. I called a friend last night. I got word that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. So I just called him.

And I just said to him, I just want you to know that I love you. I'm part of your team. I'm praying with you. And I believe God is going to do something you and I cannot possibly imagine. I believe that the Lord will appear and the Lord will explain.

But the third part of this to me is really the big part of it. The Lord will call. He will make known to us what he requires of us. My precious friends, you and I are all too often coming and we are accepting God's appearing and we're accepting God's explanation.

But we are not accepting what God requires of us in turn. He'll tell us what to do. And in fact, he gave to Solomon four things. So I'm just going to tell you what he told to Solomon. The Lord will call his people. When we call on his name, he will tell his people. When we call on his name, God will call on his people. He will call, number one, for our humility. So what he tells us, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves.

You know, I think much of what happens to us in life is God's designed purpose to create in us a humble and a contrite spirit before him. And God says, listen, I'm going to appear and I'm going to explain. I want you to know that I am going to open my eyes. I am going to be attentive. I am going to answer your prayer.

I am going to heal you. But here's what you have to bring back to the table in turn. Number one, humility. Humility. You see, my friends, humility is the attitude with which we come to him. I know in my own life, I have far too many times been far too arrogant when it comes to God. They can creep into our lives because of our circumstances and our situations and untoward flippancy. Far too often we arrive in the temple of the living God without a thought for who we coming to worship. Sometimes we come before him. We are preoccupied with our gadgets, with our conversations. I don't know, but it's all of these things because they're all over our world today.

They're everywhere. We're living in the cyber world. We're so busy.

We're so engaged. We're working our plans for lunch and we need to get to the ball game and we've got to make a living and we've got plans to do it, places to be in. We kind of just simply fit God in and God is saying, no, I require of you a humble spirit. That's the attitude with which we come to him.

That's the first call. The Lord will call for our humility. Secondly, the Lord will call for our prayers. He said, if you humble yourself and pray, this is the second requirement. If God is going to open his eyes and be attentive, number one, we have to humble ourselves. Number two, we have to pray. If humility is the attitude with which we come before him, then our prayers are the conversation with which we engage him. Prayer is a conversation with God. And you and I have become so, you know, here the fire of God came down in the temple and God, he appeared, he explained, and then he called. He said, listen, I appear to you. I'm going to explain this all to you.

I'm going to explain this all to you. Here's my call. My call is for humility. The attitude with which you come before me. My call is for you to pray.

It's the conversation with which you engage me. My call is for our pursuit, for your pursuit. That's the third call, seek after.

That word seek after is to pursue. It speaks to the relentless, never willing to give up, sit down and say, I'm not going to do it anymore. It is to keep on keeping on.

It's for our pursuit. If humility is the attitude with which we come to him and prayer is the conversation with which we engage him, then our pursuit is the determination with which we approach him. I'm determined to find God, aren't you? I'm determined. I will not allow Satan to get the stronghold in my life.

I'm not going to allow this disease to affect me. I'm going to claim God's power. I'm going to pursue with a relentless spiritual determination in an attitude of humility. In my conversation with God, I'm going to relentlessly pursue after him.

I've made a decision. I'm going off to God. I'm going to follow hard after God. Well, there was a fourth call of God here. He called for our humility and for our prayers and for our pursuit, but he called for our repentance. It's what he tells us right here in verse 14. And if humility is the attitude with which we come to him and prayer is the conversation with which we engage him and pursuit is the determination with which we approach him, then our repentance is the sorrow with which we bow down before him. That's tremendous teaching from Dr. Don Wilton as he leaves from the pulpit and steps into the studio.

Open your heart to what he wants to share next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart in Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you just gave your life to Jesus Christ or prayed to rededicate your life, you need to know there is nothing more exciting for Dr. Don Wilton to hear about than that bit of change in your life. Dr. Don lives for those wonderful stories, and as you call us right now at 866-899-WORD, that's 866-899-9673. We'll send you those resources right away that Dr. Wilton wants you to have and begin to pray for you. As a matter of fact, Dr. Don would love to hear your story. If you'd write him Don, D-O-N, at T-E-W online dot O-R-G, it would be a tremendous blessing. That's Don, D-O-N, at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. My book, Saturdays with Billy, is about an extraordinary relationship with a precious man who impacted lives across the world.

You don't want to miss this opportunity to be inspired by his life too. Again, all the details are on our website at T-E-W online dot O-R-G.