2 Chronicles 7 11-22

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2 Chronicles 7

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When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carryingout all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace,

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the LORD appeared to himat night and said:"I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.

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"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,

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if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and prayand seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sinand will heal their land.

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Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.

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I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and myheart will always be there.

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"As for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your father did, and do all I command, andobserve my decrees and laws,

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I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.'

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"But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serveother gods and worship them,

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then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and willreject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule amongall peoples.

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This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and say, 'Whyhas the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?'

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People will answer, 'Because they haveforsaken the LORD, the God of their ancestors, 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.' "

Brothers and sisters in Christ,Getting lostThat’s what it feels like when we start to lose our focus on God.When we start wandering through life by ourselves. When weabandon the fundamentals – when we stop praying.That’s what we’re here to talk about this morning – our textfocuses on prayer – on that conversation that we have with God.On that relationship with Him. And why it is so important that wekeep turning back to prayer. Now we begin by talking about what it’s like when we lose that..

I. When we lose our focus, when we start forgetting to pray,that’s when we start noticing things going wrong.

That’s what we find here in 2 Chronicles chapter 7.

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The palace was built. Solomon had just finished the temple of Godin Jerusalem. The dreams of his father David were finally realizedhere with his son. The city – the residence of God – had beenestablished on Earth. This was a major point in Israel’s history.Here in this important point of history – after it was all done and built – there in the middle of the night – God himself appeared toSolomon and he began to speak. Now I want to deal with the first half of what God said a little bitlater – but right now I want to deal with what follows verse 19.What we find here is a very dire warning for the people of Israel.He says – Israel – if you turn away – if you go out on your own – if you forsake or reject or ignore my commands – my laws – andstart to worship other gods and idols and follow them instead – then this is what’s going to happen.And it’s not a very nice picture for them.Verse 20 says if you wander away – if you lose your focus on me – then I’m going to uproot you from the land.I’m going to take you and literally pull you out of the ground.Think about that image. Think about trees and plants that have been uprooted. The first thing that we notice is that when a plant isuprooted it no longer has a connection to the ground. There’s notransfer of water and nutrients. Pull a plant and leave it on theground and it soon withers and fades and eventually dies.The other thing about uprooted plants is that they’re no longer secure or safe. They can be blown by the wind. Picked up andcarried off by animals and birds. Easily lost and easily shaken.

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God has given Israel this land – he’s established her in it – quiteliterally he has planted her in the ground. But one of theconsequences of wandering away is losing that land – having her roots exposed – of no longer being safe and secure within the soil. Now we might not understand the land – but we should have asense of what it means to be safe and secure with God – it’s verymuch the same idea. That when we are focused on God when weare established in Christ we have that stability and safety.But when we lose focus – when we forget to pray – the roots feel alittle bit exposed. People who describe the feeling often talk aboutit like not being fed or like getting lost. Undernourished and notsecure. Uprooted.Verse 20 and 21 talks about a second consequence of not praying – not focusing on God. God says I’ll reject this temple. I’ll leave itin a pile of rubble. It will become an object of ridicule and shameand people will look at it and be appalled.We have to notice that these are big things – the land and thetemple – and the temple for them represented for them the heart of their religion. This is where they worshiped. This is where theyoffered sacrifices. This is the place where God was supposed to befor them.This big glorious building. This residence for God on Earth thathas just been completed. This centre of worship for the Jewish people – rejected, destroyed, ridiculed.Their religion – useless.Disconnect from God and that’s what you get – a religious systemthat has no real value. There are some people who come to church

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