Identity // The Church Pacific Coast Church Pastors JF & Ashley Wilkerson
2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV
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 I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14a NIV
14a If my people, who are called by my name,
2 Chronicles 7:14a CJB
14a If my people, who bear my name…
James 1:22-24 NLT
22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.
2 Chronicles 7:14a NIV
14a If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves …
1. We are to HUMBLE OURSELVES.
Proverbs 11:1-2 NLT
1 The Lord detests the use of dishonest scales, but he delights in accurate weights. 2 Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
Humility - n. a modest or low view of one's own importance.
Humility isn’t thinking less OF yourself.. it’s thinking less ABOUT yourself.
Philippians 2:3-4 NIV
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Galatians 6:2 NIV
2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
3 Areas That I See the Enemy Use to Keep Us from Humbling Ourselves:
Denial - When we deny that humility is our calling.
Deflection - When we want to talk about anything else but what requires us to be humble.
Discomfort - When it doesn’t feel good to humble ourselves.
1 Corinthians 12:12-14;24b-26 NIV
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 24b But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Lament - n. a passionate expression of grief or sorrow.
2 Chronicles 7:14a NIV
14a If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face...
2. We are to PRAY while SEEKING HIS FACE.
John 4:3-4 NIV
3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria.
Matthew 12:18 NIV
18 “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
Matthew 12:21 NIV
21 In his name the nations will put their hope.
2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV
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 I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
3. We are to TURN FROM WICKED WAYS.
Ephesians 5:6-11 NIV
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them. 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV
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 I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Questions
1. How does remembering who we are supposed to be reflecting (and representing) remind us to be doers of the Word and not just hearers?
2. What does it look like to humble yourself? What might be something that would keep you from readily doing that?
3. What does it mean to pray while seeking God’s face? How is this different from just praying?