OCT 15 2017 | 2 Chronicles 7:11-17

Sea Change Church · "2 Chronicles 7:11-17" · Adam Stadtmiller · October 15, 2017
2 Chronicles 7:11-17
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

It's always wonderful when we have the opportunity to sing God's Word. In the passage this morning, 2 Chronicles 7, verses 11 through 17. And how wonderful to hear already from the Probosco family and about the Bass Commission, with Pastor Adam's encouragement, one minute on the most powerful experience that I've ever had in God bringing 2 Chronicles 7 to life.

It was a few years ago, I was teaching at Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya. And one of the great hospitals, Christian Works in Kenya, is by the Coptic Church, the Coptic Christian Church. And in their altar area in the church, if you can picture a banner that would go from side to side up here, 2 Chronicles 7, 14 was displayed, If My People, Who Are Called By My Name.

And I went in to pray with them during one of my visits, and the person said to me, We almost lost Kenya last year at the elections. The tribalism, the rivalries, the mutual accusations were so powerful, and we knew why God had led us to choose this passage for our passage for the year. So we rallied by God's grace, other churches, and together a network across the country prayed that God would redeem the land.

And beyond all hope, the government opened up, there were other people admitted in partnership, and that government continues. It's just a remarkable place. I'd be glad to talk more. But how wonderful to see God's word come to life. And he wants to do aspects of that here in ways he'll make clear as we seek his face. 2 Chronicles 7. 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, 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.

When I shut up the heavens so there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among 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 I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open, and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.

I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. And as for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with David your father, when I said, you will never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.

Thank you, Lord, for the truth of your word, and may we experience it as it comes true in our lives, our land. We ask this to your glory through Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Jim. Thanks for that good word, too, about Kenya. Very cool. God redeeming a place. We are in a series right now, and the series is called Things Adam Wants to Talk About.

It is a month-long series. Stuff I want to talk about, you know what I'm saying? On occasion, I do that. I really, being a part of Calvary Chapel for a long time and some other movements, I'm really into verse-by-verse going through the Word of God in text, and I really like that. But there has to be a room on occasion for us pastors to spread our wings a little bit.

And so last week, I talked about evangelism. I think it's important because I believe that God is calling us as a church to become more Christ-telling to other peoples and inviting. The key word was invitation. Today, I want to speak about revival, and we'll talk about that in a moment. But before I do, last week, I made a statement, and I had enough rumbling from it from around the...

You can actually email me if you need to. I was a joke that you can't email me, and I will delete your email if you ask me about a sermon. That's not true. But I did hear some rumblings, which was good, and it caused us to think. And I made a provocative statement that the main purpose Jesus came to the world was not to save sinners. That was God's main purpose in sending His Son to the world.

But Jesus' main purpose was to be obedient to the Father, to do what His Father asked Him, and to be obedient and bring glory to the Father. That is why Jesus did what the Father asked Him to do. Now, primarily, Jesus was in alignment with what God wants, and He did come to die on the cross and have people be saved. Next week, because we are still going to be in the things Adam wants to talk about, we are going to talk about the purpose and mission of Jesus.

So, I heard some things like, well, Jesus didn't come to save us, and did He not die for sin? And so, I really appreciate you speaking to the gatekeepers, Pastor Jim and Elliot and others, and they contacted me to let me know, you can actually contact me personally if you want as well. But they are good to be outriggers and to say, hey, you preached heresy last week, so we need you to fix that.

We've got to sort that out. It's exciting to see, and Jesus does want to introduce you to the Father. So, we're going to talk about the mission and purpose of Jesus, and then I'll come up with something else I want to talk about, and then we're going to get into Thanksgiving for the season of November, and then in December, we'll be talking about Jesus coming in the four Gospels and the Nativity, and then we'll go on from there.

You'll see the different things that are happening. We're very excited about those things. In regard to today's message on revival, when I went to the American Baptist, which I didn't know that Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist. I didn't know that, and so I'm learning. I just put the American Baptist uniform on. I've worn a lot of uniforms.

I've been a Wesleyan Methodist, went to Nazarene Seminary. I worked for Young Life. I worked for Christian Surfers. I was at Calvary Chapel. I was a vineyard pastor. I'm like one of those players in the NBA that's really not good enough to get stuck with any franchise, so I'm not magic, and I guess they kept trading me. But for some reason, God has taken me all over Christendom.

I grew up Catholic. I was in a Pentecostal movement for a while. Don't ask me how I got there. None of these really were of my choosing. I just kept ending up there, or they'd let me in. That was the other thing. If they'd let me in, that was kind of one of the low bar, and they would let me in. I really come to fall in love with the entire Church of God.

I mean, I think the first five uniforms I wore, it was kind of like once I put the uniform on, I'm like, oh, this is it. When I was at Young Life, this is the answer. I was like, it's all about evangelism. The church doesn't know how to evangelize. If they only were like us at Young Life, we would evangelize the world. And they're sleeping in the pews, and I was that guy.

And then I was at the vineyard, and I had some cool experiences, and figured out who the Holy Spirit was. It was kind of cool. And I was like, oh, if this group of people only had the Holy Spirit, then we could get to business. And then I was somewhere else, and then I was somewhere else. And pretty soon, I just couldn't change it. I just saw this uniform that said, Jesus, like love Jesus.

And I thought, I'm going to wear that uniform. And so God, send me wherever you want. Let me stick to the basics of the faith that Jesus died on the cross, risen again, evangelism, discipleship, those type of things. And kind of felt like God has told me, you know, I want you to throw a fastball. I'm not looking for a changeup or a curve. There's people in the world that God has called to do that and to be really into one part of his kingdom.

But I feel like God has just said, hey, I want you to throw a fastball and to bless people and help people to be released to wherever I call them. So that's kind of my mission and what I do and what you're going to see at this church. When I was at the conference of the American Baptist, the new general secretary, who's amazing, Lee Spitzer, threw a couple changeups of his own.

And one of the things he said, which was very provocative, was what if everything that we see happening on a global scale today was not so much from the enemy, but was from God. And the whole purpose was to tribulate, to cause enough angst in the world that people would be prepared for a great revival and a wave of his presence and salvation.

And he said, if you only read the headlines, I'm paraphrasing, but if you only read the headlines without the Bible in your hand, as a believer, you will easily be dismayed. But if you read between the lines in the scripture and understand that there is a large, large amount of biblical context for God saying, I'm going to go into a society and I'm going to shake the sheets.

I mean, it is rife throughout the Bible. Matter of fact, last week in the passage I spoke about, I realized as I was preparing this sermon, that there was some continuity between those scriptures because Jesus, when he talks about the wedding feast, says he goes and invites people twice. They say no, and then they kill his servants. And then what is it?

You don't even remember what he said that he did? It says, I sent my army to destroy their cities. And then as soon as he destroyed, now God doesn't do that, right? Because he's God and he's nice and we have to have this nice God. So he would never, ever do anything that we wouldn't think is nice. And the world is looking for a nice God, not a God with any edge to him on occasion.

And we've defanged God a little bit, I believe. But it says, Jesus says, this is Jesus, so this is a New Testament context. Jesus says after that, he sends the servants back out. And all of a sudden, the wedding hall is filled to the brim. Now that's interesting. He sends it out. It is God that sends something. He shakes the sheets in the society.

And then all of a sudden, the wedding banquet hall is filled. In this same scripture, we see God saying, as we read through it, that he says, like, if you humble yourself. But before we get to that, I just want to look at the scripture in verse 13. Could that be any smaller, that little 13 on the notes? That's my fault. Listen to what it says. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no more rain, and command locusts to devour the land, or send a plague among my people.

That's not the God we're looking for, right? That's not the, he's not, that's not a very nice thing to do by God. God disciplines us, it says in the book of James, that we might come to know that we have what? Anybody know what it says? A loving father. It says, consider all discipline. It says, consider it as, I think the word, it's the word's not joy, but consider it discipline, knowing that you have a father who loves you.

And so, I'm not saying that everything we see happening in the world is from God, and he's doing this, and I'm blaming God. Because I think there's some people that say, oh, you see that one exact, that one thing over there? That, that, that natural disaster? That's God. And it came on a certain city, and that city is really sinful. And we're going to say that God, where he's taking it out, and they start proclaiming that.

But I'm not doing that, okay? So, just hear me that I'm not saying that. What I am saying is that the scripture, if you want to look at the Bible, gives us an ample amount of New Testament, as we saw with Jesus last week, and Old Testament, multiple times, where God will shake the sheets into society so that some might come to know him. To not, he will not continue, he loves us too much to not allow us to devour ourselves in our own debauchery.

So, in order, a loving thing, when we're getting ready to put our finger in the light socket, he will come, and perhaps right before we're about to do it, come, and in a very rough, perhaps, way, knock us out of the way that we might be saved. This is what Dr. Spitzer said, and he said, I believe that God has spoken to me. And he goes, I'm not sure I'm right, and I love when pastors speak that way.

He's not definitive. But he said, I'm not sure I'm right, but I believe that we are on the cusp of a great revival. Perhaps, if. Now, it's interesting, because for the last couple of years in different sermons, I feel like the Lord has mentioned the same thing to me, and many of you have seen it well, and I've heard other leaders and national leaders say the same thing.

Is it possible that instead of looking at what's happening in society and saying it's all going to hell, or the temptation that I told you about that I regularly struggle with, is to say, I'm just going to check out. There was an article I read recently about the amount of pastors that are leaving the work right now. There is a lack of pastors because they're discouraged, and they don't want to face what they might have to in order to move forward in a society that is deeming them, or dehumanizing them with one term or another, calling them this or that.

And so there is a loss of pastors. But what he said, and what I believe, is what if God is preparing us, and we're on the cusp of a great revival? Now, we see this throughout history. In the 1950s, there was a revival after World War II. If you've studied World War II, it was brutal. If you have studied the 1960s, and there was... The 1960s is so...

And I have not been a student. I'm a new student of the 1960s. I've done a ton of World War II history, medieval history, church history, first century, second century, and obviously not in Jim's realm. But lately, I've been looking back into the 60s. It is so representative of what we see happening in society today. Some of the same... I see them...

You know, there's a lot of protesting. I see some of the same banners that are being used. It's unbelievable. But when all that kind of came to an end, and I wouldn't say it came to an end, but it settled down. In the mid-1970s, God began to send people into the world and bring a revival with those very same hippies, so to speak. That Jesus people.

I made the front of Time magazine with Chuck Smith and others throughout the country. And that launched a youth revival of modern youth ministry, which I was a part of. They were not going to Disneyland in the 19-whatevers beforehand, but there was a new way to equip and engage young people. I was part of that. Many of the people I went to church with were a part of that.

And that came on the heels of a time. And if you were alive in the 1960s, and like you were like in college age or above, and you remember it, I'm sure there was times where you were thinking to yourself, God, what is happening, is this the end? But yet God came with a counterpunch. Let me just put some hope before ourselves as a congregation.

Maybe it's not all that bad. Maybe when Jesus said, when you see these things, don't despair. And he talks about a whole list of things and things we're seeing today. Look up, for your day of redemption is near. So, what if we stopped running for the hills? What if we stopped worrying? What if we stopped complaining? What if we stopped entering into the angst and the anger of what's going on and began to actually prepare ourselves for revival?

And what if the word if means that if there is a revival, and the people, I believe people are more willing than ever to come to church. Matter of fact, I had two people this week that accepted invitations to church. One I didn't even invite. One I just told her I was a pastor of the church. And she said to me, I want to come to your church. And I said, all right.

She goes, write down. She was working at the counter. And she says, write down the name of your church. And so I wrote it down. She goes, I can't come this week because I'm babysitting, but I want to come. Another guy I invited. And this word of invitation. What if the enemy sees this? Because I believe the enemy can see things that are happening in the spiritual realm that we often can't.

And his whole deal is to get Christians so upset, so involved in the anger and the tumultuousness of the day that they never prepare. And that they're not ready when that hinge pin, it perhaps is pulled and God is ready to fill the banquet hall. What if God's ready to fill the banquet hall? What if this is a word and it's true? I think it hinges on a two-letter word that is so key that we see so often in Scripture.

If. If my people. Let's look at this real quick and we'll move through this. And so that is the beginning as I preach on revival today. And I want, and I talked to Elliot and Pastor Jim about working together because they are phenomenal Bible teachers. Working together to perhaps get together a, a teaching sometime in the new year on revival and what that would look like.

Because I think they are much better at detailed preaching than I am. I'm more of a 30,000 foot high flyer guy. And I want to have them dig into the meat and get in there on the bone and all that. I don't quite do that as much. Here's the deal. God has a thing about places. He loves the world. He loves this place. He loves his universe. He loves you.

You are a place. You are more than a place. But your heart is a place where God wants to dwell. And of those places as a church, we want to focus on four of them. This is language that has come out of the last four years. The idea of four corners. It is something that God has birthed here. I'm sure other people have used it. There's nothing new under the sun.

But we want all of our congregation to be aware of four corners. The first place that God wants to redeem is your heart. He wants to get you, just the corner of your heart. Just, I think about that corner out there all the time. We're a corner church. Somebody said today, what's your global focus on missions around the world? I said, I don't think we have one.

I said, our focus is to be the best corner church we can be. To equip our people, to harvest the love of God in their hearts, and to go out and change the entire world. I said, we don't have like Mission Asia. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. I've been at churches where they have theaters. I remember when I was at the vineyard, you would walk in, and John Wimber had a whole office area that was huge.

It was about, I don't know, a quarter size of this building. And there was maps all over the wall. It was like planning for World War II. Seriously. Seriously. And it had maps. I don't know if any of you were in the vineyard or went into there, but it was before he passed away. And I went to a meeting in there. And they had the theater, the Asian theater, and the European theater.

It was literally, that's what they called it in World War II. So they were like going after it. That was his whole mission push. And it was awesome. And he was doing things on a global scale. I really feel like God's called me to be a corner pastor church. And to bless you, and that you are our multi-campus experiment. We are a multi-campus church, just like many of those other churches.

Except the address of our campus, other campuses, is you. And we're not going to come over and set up the chairs for you and things like that. You're going to be in charge of your campus. So we have about, I don't know, 300, 400 campuses now that are coming to the church. And you are pastoring that campus on the third corner. The third corner is the corner in which you live.

And we want to see it redeemed. A friend of mine, my friend that I invited who's going to come to church, he plays basketball with me. And he was injured playing basketball. And we've been hanging out. And I've been trying to make some connections with him. He wants to coach pro basketball. And so I have some relationships in the church. You're surprised being a pastor, how many people you meet.

And so I said, I'd like you to go to lunch with me. And a guy named John Block, he's a Hall of Famer, was a Laker. And he's excited about that. And he showed up to basketball on Friday. Now, I shouldn't be playing basketball because I have a torn ACL. But I wrapped it up really good. So I'm there. I call it warrior. My wife calls it idiot. Just saying.

Just saying. And it was so interesting. He's not a Christ follower. My buddy. I did find out he was Jewish. And I was like, dude, you're the chosen people. He goes, I don't know, man. I said, no, you are, dude. I said, trust me. I said, you've got a blessing on you. He goes, maybe. I said, look, I can help you dig into that. Trust me. I want to. So we have these great conversations.

He's a really good guy. And I said, dude, your hand's broke. Why are you here at the game? Because you can't play. He goes, 50% of basketball for me is community. And he goes, I'm just here to support the guys and be here. Who shows up to pick up basketball, to just be part of the community and to cheer the other guys on? This is a pickup. It's not a game.

Like, we're not in a league. And he taught me so much about evangelism and changing my corner. You know, I haven't been to the basketball court since I injured myself until I was ready to play again. I'm still not ready to play again. But nonetheless, I showed up, wrapped up my knee and played. But I thought, would I ever just show up, bring a bunch of Gatorade?

I thought, wow. That's what we're asking you to do, to redeem the corner you live in, to make a difference. And my buddy taught me a lot about it. A lot. And we can learn a lot from the people that surround us, partnering with people who don't even follow Christ to redeem the community, that want to make a change in the community. So that's the third corner.

And the fourth corner, this is the four corners of the world, as you guys go out and change the world. We're talking about places. Look in your notes. God has always had a thing about places. Now, my question that came up to me, it was very intriguing. And I love new thought. And I love bringing new thought to the congregation. I feel like I want my preaching to be revelatory.

I don't want to just be a study where I'm just repeating what I read someone else from a book. I want it to be revelatory, and I want to hear from the Lord. And I feel like you really need to depend on the Holy Spirit to have revelation beyond what you can just read in a book. And I felt a tug in my heart ask the question, why would an omnipresent God, meaning a God that is everywhere in all places, there is no limit to where he is, why would an omnipresent God care about being in a place?

Why does he make place special when he is everywhere? Why is any place more specific to him than another? Why, when you are everywhere, why? And can one place, if you're an omnipotent God, be any more special than another place? Because if God is in the mix, is in the midst of it, and he's eternal, every place should have an equality of his presence.

But we have found that the world is in a battle. That since the fall of man, that there is a battle for place in society. The key place is the corner of the human heart. That God wants, he wants that place desperately. He wants us to humble ourselves and go to him and find him. And then the other place is he wants to find places in the world that he can redeem.

Actual, physical, temporal space. It is easy to turn God into an ethereal magician. A mystic smoke that, you know, a mist that is kind of there and not there. But God wants to come on to a place and to make certain places, if he can get in alignment with his people, special. He wants to put a little more of his presence. Maybe it's not more because he's eternal, but for somehow we experience more of his presence.

The place becomes, it looks more like God. And I would say that this corner has that. That when I got here, I felt a presence that was different than seven blocks away. Or 15 blocks away. And there have been places, and if you have a discernment, some of us have a gift of discernment that is stronger than others. But if you do have a gift of discernment, and God has given you that to you, you will be very aware when you walk into different places.

There is a toy store in a certain city, and it's owned by this woman, and it's very dark. And I can feel when I walk by it, it's almost like something pushes me when I walk by it. The whole thing is, everything is, it's all like witchcraft stuff, but it's a toy store for kids. But everything in it is dark. It's death, it's skeletons, it's the whole deal.

When I walk by it, I can feel it. And I can feel an absence of God's presence. Now as I read in Genesis, I decided I wanted to get, to read through the Bible again, besides just listening to it with the Daily Audio Bible. So I started in Genesis yesterday. I want to try to read through the whole Bible again. And I realized that in the creative story, the one thing that is present that God did not create, does anybody know what it is?

It's in the first chapter. It talks about all the things God created, and there was these things, but one of them God didn't create, but it's very present. Darkness. Yeah, sin, well, yeah, but he didn't, there was no sin in the beginning. It was, that was brought on by man. But sin was, was a choice of man. But God did not create darkness. Matter of fact, he created, there was darkness that was present, but then he created light to separate it.

You will see nowhere that, that darkness is the opposite of creation. Darkness has no meaning. And it says that darkness was over the, the, the, the, what God had created, and it was formless and void. And God brought meaning to it. And light brings meaning because it points to who God is within creation. This is one of the strategies of the devil, is to remove meaning from everything.

If you see in society, we're removing meaning from what it means to be a father. Anybody can be a father. Removing meaning for what it means. All these different meanings to make things formless and void, and to move them towards the darkness. So we see the world is in a battle of place. And look at these interesting scriptures about place. Now, the word place is used 1,115 times in scripture.

Do a Google search this week. Here's your homework. I'm giving you homework. Go home and Google search use of the word place in scripture or in the Bible. You can go to BibleGateway.com and just put in a word search for place. You will be, I'm sorry that I told Elliot about it, because, Johanna, if you're here, I'm sorry, because Elliot is not going to spend any time with you this week.

He is going to be researching place all week. I knew that this week as I was writing it, because sometimes I know that if I throw a bone in a sermon, that Elliot is going to jump on it, and many of you else as well. But I thought, he's going to like this. And before I even preached it, he came up to me at the break, and he goes, hey, you know, I got this idea about place.

And I just got a little smile on my face. I thought I knew. So be ready for that. He's a great Bible. I'm sorry, I've mentioned you twice. Probably going to embarrass you. I apologize. Look at this word. God did what? He placed the stars in the sky. Why did he do that, it says? He did that. The meaning was to give light to govern the darkness. Light is meant to govern the darkness.

Without light, darkness runs rampant with no governance. It has an anarchy spirit about it. One of the things you'll see in society today is a push by certain groups to have anarchy. No meaning. No governance. You'll see that happening. It all can be found in Scripture. God placed them so that even the darkness can be reigned in. You know, God has the ability to reign in darkness, to keep it under control, and that we, through our prayers, can do the same thing.

We have the ability as believers to co-labor with God, to reign in the darkness, to shackle the darkness, that we will say, not in this place, and while there might be darkness, you will be under the governance of the light, and you are a light in the darkness. And God has called you as an ambassador to bring governance to the world and to the darkness.

Pow. That's a Scripture. January. Genesis 2.21. Look at this. He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh. This is talking about the creation where woman and man, and they were created together. I just love that. And he closed the flesh at that place. You know, it was so interesting that God could have just created woman, but he wanted to collaborate with man.

There's something about that place and the covering underneath his rib. He didn't take it out of his shoulder. He didn't take it out of his kneecap. It was under that covering, and it shows that man, one of the purposes, I believe, of man is to work with woman, but to be a protective covering that releases her into all that God has called her to do.

When we see men not protecting women, I'm not saying dominating women. I'm not saying that we are just over them and overlording them. I'm saying being protective. I'm saying caring, being loving. How can we support? How can we protect you? You know, men are physically built for protection. There is a place for protection with men, and so I won't go into that today, but that place was special, and there was a meaning there, and there's a deep meaning there.

Look at place. Look at how God cares about place. Genesis 13, 14, the Lord said to Abraham, after Lot had separated from him, now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, and westward, and he goes on to say, it is all yours. What is so interesting in that is he separated with Lot. He wasn't supposed to take Lot with him, but he didn't have the faith to go out.

Even though he was a man of faith, he didn't have the faith to separate from Lot, so he took Lot with him, and it caused a whole bunch of problems, and when he finally let Lot leave, Lot said, Abraham said, you choose whatever part of the land you want, and I'll take what's left over, and so he's, you know, Lot says, oh, I want the best part, and so Abraham says, yeah, you can have that, and Abraham gives his promise to Lot, but see, God's not going to be shackled by that, and so as soon as Lot leaves, he basically says to Abraham, look everywhere in the 360.

Oh, and that little part you gave to Lot, everything you see is yours. It is yours, and you will live in complete dominion. I want to say it is a special place, that the Holy Land is a special place, that God has a purpose for that land, and we, you know, we're not going to worship the Holy Land, okay? I want to make sure that we don't come to church that worships the Holy Land.

The Holy Land is a place that represents a better place, but it's important. I believe that when people humble themselves before God, that the place that you live can be redeemed and changed, that God will dump his presence, and you will feel his actual presence as the light begins to come in alignment with who he is, your home, does it feel like a place God would live?

Or is it full of swearing? Is it full of shows that, you know, you wouldn't want to watch? Is it full of angst? What does it look like? And when people walk in, do they notice a difference? We have worked very diligently to let our house become a sanctuary. That wasn't that way to begin with, to be a sanctuary. And we have had so many people come to our home and say, and I felt it in many of your homes as well, and I feel it in this place, where they have come, people that are working plumbers, people that have helped us and done things, and say, you know, there's a peace.

They've told us they can actually feel it. You know, God's presence is often, often a felt presence. Look, place is symbolic of purpose then, because God wants to put his presence on that place, and he wants to bring a purpose to that place. Jesus, in John 14, 2, what does he say? I go and prepare what for you? A place. All of this to say, let me tell you what this means.

We are a people about place. We want a redeem place, and there's four corners again. The place of your heart. How's it doing? Is it full of weeds? Does it need some restoration? Do you need, you know, to give God more? To lean in that you can have that place. The place in which you live. This place, this corner matters. I hope, now look, we understand that you don't live on this corner.

All of you don't live in La Jolla, and we're not asking you to change La Jolla if you live in Oceanside. Matter of fact, our new sign came in from Oceanside. We have signs in the back representing where you live, and a couple cities, people said we didn't have a sign. So Oceanside got a sign today. It'll be going up in the back. They want to change Oceanside with the same spirit.

We want to show you how to do it, but hopefully you care about this place, this corner. This corner matters to you, and from this corner that has mattered for so many other people. And if you look through the history books of this church, there have been people that have said, this place will not stand, will not fall, and we will do whatever it takes to make sure that there is a church on the corner in this place.

We have letters from the older, previous congregations that encourage the future generations, that is us, to make sure that we bless and keep this place, a place where God's spirit will resonate through community. And the thing about God's place is if you give him an inch, he'll take an eternity. We want the next street over. Matter of fact, we want all of La Jolla.

I think La Jolla actually has a special, is a special place. I don't know why. But I know it's one of the few cities that has a cross on the hill that stayed. And I believe that that is a, I believe that when you are in alignment, whether you agree with it or not, when a city says we are going to have that, God says I'm going to give you a little bit more of my presence in that place.

When your heart says, God, I want to give you some sin in my life, God says, well, then I'll take a little bit more and your life will be redeemed and be changed. I believe the fact, and I believe the fact that we have a city that fights to continue to have a Christmas parade. Not that I'm going to be that guy out there on the sign fighting that battle, but I think it does matter.

I think it does matter. And I know there's a, I'm not getting into all that, but I believe when a city says we're not ashamed of the message of Jesus Christ, I think it matters in a city. And I think it matters enough that it is possible. What if there was going to be a global revival and God is finding some corners? Because I know there's a corner church in Montana on a corner that Bryce took from our church that we sent him that is locking down that corner in Montana.

And I know other corners around the world and corner churches where we're all locking it down. And pretty soon, God, like a spider web, connects us all together and says, bam, now's the time. Let's move. I believe, what about us, God? What if a global revival started with us? I'm not calling the global revival from here. I've been in movements before where it's all about, yes, us, us, I don't know.

But is it possible that what God is doing here can change the world? That through God's presence, we begin to expand that presence in your heart, in this place. I hope that this corner matters to you. And I hope that it changes the corner that you live in. Coming in for a landing now. Being a people committed to the work of reclamation. We first see that tribulation, as I spoke, can often be a starting block for revival.

And I've already preached this, so I'm going to skip past this point. But God oftentimes sends tribulation for the purpose of revival. One of the questions we have in society today is, why? Why? People can't find an answer to why. Have you noticed that? Like, they're looking around, and there's this angst, and the question they can't answer is, why? One of the reasons I believe that if you remove God from your matrix of trying to find why, then you won't have an understanding of a key component of why God allows things.

Perhaps he didn't send it, but perhaps he allowed it. Why would God send the Assyrians to basically destroy Israel? Why would he do that? Why would he send the Babylonians to do that? Why would he take the city that he had put his name and allow it to be besmirched? Because he loves the Israelites. He loves the people enough to discipline them that they might come home.

And so we see that happening. And so I just wonder, God, is that happening today? The other thing that I thought is super important, really important in regard to revival starting up and redeeming the places you live in is it doesn't start with the world. I oftentimes think about, you know, if just the people, these people who don't follow God, that even God haters, it says in the scripture, you know, that hate God, would just turn from their sinful ways, then we could have revival.

If they all got their act together, then we would have revival. But you know, it's contrary to how God says revival starts. God says, if who will humble themselves? Us. My people. He's not calling the lost to humble themselves and repent. It starts with the church. And judgment starts at the door of the church. In the Old Testament, when God judges the people, he one time sends the archangel and he starts at the steps of the temple.

And then the angel goes out from there and judges. I want to say that if revival is going to come, it's not going to be because everyone who doesn't follow God accepts Jesus and decides they're wrong and they have all these issues and they got to change them and follow Jesus. Revival starts with people who are already called and chosen by God. It has to start with us.

And if we are going to live in our sin, if we're going to continue to give margin for sin in our lives and these different things and not humble ourselves and not call on God for prayer and not ask him to redeem and basically check out and just have our Christian club, I want to say revival, that is the if, and revival will not come. Revival comes because the people of God get serious about revival and they call on God.

How will people who don't know God call on God? God. That's why it starts with the church. He starts with who knows him. I just, you know, not a word of guilt or anything, but I just think we need to somehow get serious about humbling ourselves before God. I have an offer for some of you because I felt incredibly overwhelmed on how will I start this, will I start this thing and you know, I'm just a person who goes to this church.

Granted, I preach and I'm in charge, you put me in charge of some things, but I'm just, I mean, look, look, this is what I do. I sit here. I'm a, I'm a congregant just like you. FYI. And I get overwhelmed with thinking how will I do this and I thought the Lord said, why don't you ask the people to do it? I want to encourage whoever wants to do it to start a once a week prayer gathering for just you and a friend or you and 10 friends, but once a week, this is just a call and I'm asking you to raise your hand, you just go do it.

On Tuesdays, a few years ago, I started my Tuesday prayer meeting that, you know, we have every, we've been doing it for four years now, three and a half, four years. It's one of the most powerful things that we do on here at noon on Tuesdays. You're welcome to come. I just want to encourage you. If God speaks to your heart, start a prayer meeting, humble yourselves, seek God and pray and pray for revival.

Just, I'm just laying that. I think that I just got to, I cannot be the bottleneck. One of the things I learned at the conference is as a pastor, I'm such a bottleneck sometimes. Oh, well, we can't do this. We can't do this because we're not on mission and da, da, da. I just want to release the hounds. No offense. I want to release the ponies. Whatever it is, I just need to release you and I want to say, can some of you just start a prayer meeting?

Walk your streets. Just do it for a year. Make a one-year commitment every Thursday at noon. I know some of the men are meeting at the cross, I think at 6 a.m. They just started it on their own. I didn't launch the prayer movement. I just want to say, I don't have, I just get overwhelmed thinking, how do I do it all? I can't. I'm putting it in your hands.

If we humble ourselves, seek God and pray. I know, Chris, you're at UCSD. That could be a place we could lock down different places. You know, if we do it, what would happen if we began to do that? The final thing says is, revival releases forgiveness of sin and heals the land. You realize how powerful that promise is? If you do these things, I will heal your land.

Our land is gushing from an open wound. It is bad. I don't bring it up on purpose. I believe that this is a sanctuary and we would be doing a 10-minute, you know, reminder of what gnarly thing happened in the world and why the flag is at half-staff every week. I mean, it's just ridiculous. I don't bring it up because, not that I don't care about it, because I think there's enough voices in the world and you're pretty aware of what's happening.

I want this to be a sanctuary. I want this to be a castle where you can come in and just sit and breathe in God and get right and then go back out and change the world. So that's why I specifically don't do it and some people would say that, you know, I'm not using my platform well. But I believe that, well, I just believe in a different way of doing that.

But what I do know is that God says he'll heal our land. Can you imagine that if our land was healed? I mean, it happened in Wales in the early 1900s. It happened in different places like Azusa Street Revivals up in California where God began to heal a land. There began to be social inequality, all these things that we're protesting. It is healed. You know where it starts?

It doesn't start with policies. It doesn't start with political action. It starts with the people of God humbling themselves, not checking out and saying the lost matter to me, not being angry at them because they're taking away our freedoms or whatever reason why we're angry. It starts with, God could have been real angry and snuffed out the world. You know what he did?

He sent his son. And I personally need to repent and begin to weep for the lost again as opposed to be angry at them. And it's very easy. I find myself triggered. The media is, I'm an emotional person. The media is meant to trigger you to make it us versus them and dehumanize the people that you disagree with. Dehumanization. That's the one thing about humanism dehumanizes.

It's the core tactic. I want to call you to be a people who cry over the lost again. And I think I shed my first tear in a long time yesterday in regard to this issue. Long time. Long time. Don't remember the last time I cried over the lost. Ten years? You know? But I've been pretty ticked. Pretty good at being angry. I'm just really good at being angry about it and constantly having to talk to myself.

It takes me a half hour to 45 minutes to prepare myself every Sunday morning so I can come in here and speak what God wants to say as opposed to what I've conjured up in my own mind based on seeing what I've seen in the world. It's a big difference. Congregation, I'm asking you to partner with me to care about the lost to pray for revival to take it into your own hands to change your heart to walk away from your sin and to change your corner for the name of Jesus that that if might be answered for revival.

Amen? Amen. Let's stand. Amen.