Sermon Synopsis
Using the image of a GPS saying “Recalculating,” this sermon explores God’s call to revival in 2 Chronicles 7:14. Solomon’s dedication of the temple provides the backdrop for God’s promise that restoration comes when His people humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways. Through examples from Scripture and practical illustrations, the message emphasizes that God responds graciously to genuine repentance and dependence upon Him. The sermon calls believers, families, and churches to evaluate whether they have drifted off course and to trust God’s promise to hear, forgive, and restore those who return to Him.
Please note: This transcript is provided as close to verbatim record of the sermon.
Recalculating: The Path to Revival
Text: 2 Chronicles 7:14
Introduction: Recalculating
“Recalculating. Recalculating. Recalculating.”
Maybe you’ve heard that term if you’ve been driving. I realize that cars are difficult to acquire here in Singapore, but for some of you who have been in vehicles, sometimes you get lost and hear the GPS saying, “Recalculating, recalculating.” Maybe you’ve made a wrong turn, or perhaps there’s a road that has been closed that wasn’t noticed on the map.
A GPS can help us recalculate where we’re going, where we are, and where we’ve gone off track. We’ve gone off the path.
Where are you going this morning?
Are you on the right path of life?
You can ask that question for yourself as an individual, maybe as a family, perhaps even as a church.
Where are we going?
Perhaps you feel like you’ve lost your way a little bit—that you’re off the path and need some recalculating.
If you’re like me, sometimes you’re just tired and don’t want to keep going. You’re walking in the heat of Singapore, the sweat is dripping down your back, and you say, “I just want to stop and rest.”
Recalculating.
As we were walking here this morning, I was with Izumi and his family, and I said, “Boy, if you weren’t here, I would have no idea where I was going.”
Maybe you feel that way this morning.
I want to tell you there is hope.
This morning I’d like to talk about the topic of revival. Maybe it is revival in your own life. Perhaps you feel a little dry, a little tired, a little discouraged in your Christian walk.
Maybe in your family there are members of your household who aren’t following the Lord the way you wish they were.
Maybe as a church—you are very busy, there are a lot of activities going on—but perhaps you wonder, What are we doing? Are we just on a treadmill, running and running and running? Have we lost sight of the vision that God has for us?
Recalculating.
So I want us to consider the topic of revival.
The Context of 2 Chronicles 7
Turn with me to 2 Chronicles 7.
Before we get there, we need a little background.
In chapter 1, Solomon establishes the kingdom:
“Solomon the son of David established himself securely over his kingdom, and the LORD his God was with him and exalted him greatly.”
Later in the chapter, God appears to Solomon and says:
“Ask what I shall give you.”
You know the story. Solomon asks for wisdom and knowledge, and God grants his request. Not only that, but God also gives him wealth, honor, and peace. It would be a remarkable reign.
In chapter 2, Solomon decides to build a house for the name of the Lord and a royal palace for himself.
David had wanted to build the temple, but God told him:
“No, David. You are a man of bloodshed. Your son Solomon will build the temple.”
So Solomon fulfills that promise.
In chapters 3 and 4, construction begins. Solomon builds the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.
By chapter 5, the work is complete:
“Thus all the work that Solomon performed for the house of the LORD was finished.”
The silver, gold, and dedicated treasures are brought into the temple, and this great work is completed.
In chapter 6, the dedication begins. Solomon blesses the people, and all Israel stands before the Lord.
Solomon then kneels before God, spreads out his hands toward heaven, and offers a remarkable prayer. As you read through chapter 6, you repeatedly encounter the phrase:
If… then…
It’s almost a conversation with God as Solomon intercedes for the people and for the future of the nation.
Then we come to chapter 7.
When Solomon finishes praying, fire comes down from heaven and consumes the sacrifice. The glory of the Lord fills the temple. The priests cannot enter because of the glory of God.
The people bow with their faces to the ground and worship, saying:
“Truly He is good, truly His lovingkindness is everlasting.”
Sacrifices are offered. The feast is observed.
Then, in chapter 7, verse 12, the Lord appears to Solomon.
It seems that Solomon is praying with an awareness that God’s people may one day wander. He is praying that they would be recalculated in their spiritual lives.
Read with me beginning in verse 11:
“Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king’s palace, and successfully completed all that he had planned on doing in the house of the LORD and in his palace. Then the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, ‘I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.’”
Then God says:
“If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
That is where I want to focus our attention this morning.
There are four things God asks His people to do:
These are four things that help us find our way back onto the path when we’ve gotten lost.
These are four things that are essential if we desire revival.
The first instruction is simple:
Humble yourselves.
Several biblical stories illustrate this truth.
Ahab
In 1 Kings 21, we read about Ahab, one of Israel’s most wicked kings.
He was influenced by Jezebel, committed terrible evil, and even arranged the death of Naboth in order to seize his vineyard.
God sends Elijah to confront him and pronounce judgment.
Yet something surprising happens.
Ahab tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth, fasts, and humbles himself before God.
Then the Lord says to Elijah:
“Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days.”
As wicked as he was, when he humbled himself, God took notice.
Hezekiah
In 2 Chronicles 32, Hezekiah acts pridefully and reveals things he should not have revealed.
Judgment is announced.
Yet when he humbles himself, God notices and delays the punishment.
Manasseh
In 2 Chronicles 33, we meet Manasseh, one of the most wicked kings in Israel’s history.
Hezekiah had prayed for fifteen additional years of life, and during that period Manasseh was born.
Be careful what you pray for.
Yet even Manasseh demonstrates this principle.
Scripture says:
“When he was in distress, he entreated the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.”
God heard him, restored him, and brought him back to Jerusalem.
And Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.
Will Manasseh be in heaven?
He humbled himself, and God took notice.
Maybe some of us need to humble ourselves before God this morning.
Maybe things have become too easy.
Maybe we know our Bibles, have our routines, and think we have everything together.
Maybe we don’t need God the way He wants us to need Him.
If we humble ourselves, He will hear our cry.
Peter writes:
“Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Can you imagine being in opposition to God?
Pride does that.
Therefore:
“Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.”
Maybe some of us need to recalculate in the area of humility.
The second instruction is:
Pray.
In 1 Samuel 12, after Saul’s disobedience, Samuel says something remarkable:
“Far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you.”
Have you ever thought about that?
Stopping prayer—ceasing to pray—can be sin.
I don’t know you. I’ve only met a few of you in the last couple of days.
I don’t know what your prayer life looks like.
Do you pray for the people in this room?
A dear saint back at Hillview once told me that they had a directory of everyone in the assembly. Each day they would take one letter of the alphabet and pray through all the names beginning with that letter.
Can you do that?
Samuel believed it would be sin to stop praying for God’s people.
The Lord Jesus also gave us a pattern for prayer—not vain repetition, but a pattern of worship, reverence, confession, dependence, and daily fellowship with God.
In Romans, we learn that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us.
Sometimes you may feel:
“Lord, I don’t even know what to say.”
That’s okay.
Come before Him anyway.
The Holy Spirit helps us.
Prayer matters deeply to God.
James tells us:
“The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”
Back home in LaVik, we don’t get much rain—unlike Singapore.
Just last week at prayer meeting, people prayed for rain, and it rained the next two days.
You can say, “Well, it rains. That’s no big deal.”
Or you can say, “We prayed for rain, and God gave rain.”
What’s your perspective on prayer?
Maybe there needs to be some recalculating in this area.
The third instruction is:
Seek My face.
To seek means to search for.
When my wife and I were first married, we lived beside a park.
One day we were playing catch because we were going to play on a co-ed softball team together.
She couldn’t wear her glove with her wedding ring on, so I put her ring in my pocket.
A little while later I checked my pocket.
No ring.
That ring represented my entire life savings at the time.
I was concerned.
My wife was concerned.
We began to seek that ring.
It got darker and darker.
I was literally on my hands and knees tearing through the grass looking for it.
Then a man walked by with his dog.
He asked what we were doing.
I told him I had lost my wife’s ring.
He said, “No problem. My dog will find it.”
Amazingly, the dog sniffed it out and found the ring.
I’m still married to this day, thankfully.
That’s what it means to seek.
God says:
“If My people seek My face.”
Many of you spend time alone with the Lord every day, and that’s wonderful.
But has it become routine?
Has it become a check mark?
Has it become a spiritual vitamin pill?
Are you seeking God?
Are you seeking His face?
Psalm 27 tells us to seek His face.
Psalm 105 tells us to seek Him continually.
This is not something we do once or twice a week.
It is a continual state of mind.
“Lord, I want to see You. I want to see Your face.”
Jeremiah 29 says:
“You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
We need to recalculate our GPS.
Our target, our goal, our destination is seeking the Lord’s face.
Jesus said:
“Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
What are you seeking this morning?
A relationship?
A career?
Success?
Money?
Comfort?
Security?
None of those things are inherently wrong.
But if they take our eyes off the Lord, we need to recalculate.
The final instruction is:
Turn from their wicked ways.
I don’t know your lives, but perhaps there are things that need to be repented of this morning.
To turn means to return.
To go back.
To reverse direction.
Literally, it means to repent.
Throughout Scripture we find this call:
In Acts 26, Paul stands before Agrippa and explains his message:
“I kept declaring… that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.”
Repentance means:
“I’ve been going this direction.”
Then I turn.
I reverse course.
I come back to God.
Do you need to repent this morning?
Are there things in your life that are drawing you off course?
The Lord is waiting.
Acts 3:19 says:
“Repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”
Last night at the young people’s meeting, the young man leading the music mentioned a line from a song:
“I can feel like I’m ten thousand steps away, but it’s always only one step back.”
No matter how far away you feel from the Lord this morning, if you repent and turn from your wicked ways, He is waiting to give you times of refreshing.
So if that’s where you are this morning:
Recalculate.
The Lord is gracious.
God’s Promise
And what does God promise?
If we do these things:
Then He says:
“I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”
He will hear.
He will listen.
He will understand where you are.
He is a forgiving and gracious God.
I was reading Joel this morning. In the midst of all the warnings about coming judgment, there is that beautiful reminder that the Lord is:
“Gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness.”
If we do these four things, God says He will hear, forgive, and restore.
He will bring us back to where we need to be.
So let me repeat the verse one final time:
“If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Do you need to recalculate this morning?
If so, God is waiting.
He is faithful.
And He loves you.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You that You are so good, that You are a God we can trust and rely upon.
We know that You are faithful.
Lord, this life is hard. The devil is good at what he does, and sometimes he distracts us and gets us off the path.
I pray for anyone here this morning who feels a little lost, a little discouraged, or perhaps feels that they are drifting away from You.
Help them to recognize that they can humble themselves, pray, seek Your face, and turn back to You.
Lord, You will forgive. You will hear. You will be gracious.
Thank You that we can trust Your Word and that You love us beyond what we can imagine.
I pray for this wonderful group of people, Lord, that they would keep their eyes fixed on You and recalculate if necessary.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.