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John 14:1-12  “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father’?  Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.  Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (NIV)

It is extremely important that Christian parents instill Christian values in their children. You cannot rely on others to do it. What is taught in your home will have the most lasting influence on your children. And this is so important for you to do in your homes because most of the influences your children will get outside the home are anti-Christian. That may sound pretty harsh, but it is true. The most influential persons in our society are those who reject Christ and promote values and lifestyles that contradict God’s Word. They reject any moral standards as obsolete and deny accountability for their actions.

These anti-Christian groups don’t simply want to be allowed to sin. They want the church to condone their sin. Even though they reject the teachings of the church, many of them demand that the church accept them and their sinful behavior. They say we cannot force our standards on them, and then turn right around and shove their standards down our throats. They even try to tell us that we should preach their ideology and reject the one who tells us that HE is the Way, Truth and Life.

This is being seen especially today among the PRO-CHOICE advocates. The overturn of Roe v. Wade has them up in arms, demanding that those who believe differently than they do must not be allowed to say so. “Don’t give us your standards, but you must accept ours.”

Schools today are being told to teach critical race theory and gender identification, but Christian teachers are told they cannot speak their faith.

Jesus told us it would be like this.

John 15:18, 20  “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first… If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.

This persecution and hatred is a proof that Jesus is who He claimed to be: THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. Why would they persecute a lie? Is anyone persecuting Buddha? People will blame Christians for the problems in the world, saying that the woes of mankind are the result of Christians trying to impose their standards on others. But think about this: was it the followers of Jesus Christ who gave us a 50% divorce rate? Are Christians responsible for a million and a half abortions a year? Are the Christians the ones who produce the movies glorifying evil and demons, adultery and promiscuity? Was it Christianity that brought AIDS to mankind? Did Bible believers bring us drug abuse? Of course not. These are all the direct result of those who say they need no standards. Who is forcing whose morality on whom?

These are real problems. They should scare you. They should make you realize the importance of instructing your children in the fear and knowledge of the Lord. Jesus has shown us the way to the Father: faith in Him as our Savior. You need to share with your kids that God loves everyone, and He proved that by sending Christ into this world to die for the sins of men. God was not willing that man should perish, but that all should come to a knowledge of Him through His Son. The death of Christ as payment for sin gives you life. His message is truth. You should now walk in His way.

The best way for any of you to instill these values in others is to live them yourself. Respond to God’s goodness by living for Him in everything you say and do. Counteract the negative influences of the world by giving a positive witness in your life to Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Psalm 101 (NIV84)

I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praise. I will be careful to lead a blameless life— when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart. I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me. Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil. Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure. My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he whose walk is blameless will minister to me. No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence. Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the LORD.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a President who sincerely felt this way? I know I’m not the only one to have that thought after reading this Psalm. If our rulers thought and lived this way, can you imagine how much better our world would be?

King David is describing his desire to be a faithful king over God’s people. He expresses that he wants to be a king like the Lord, hating sin and evil, punishing wrongdoers and leading the people in keeping with the will of our Heavenly Father. That may have been his desire, but we know David did not always live or rule that way. He was a sinner, just like the rest of us.

And while it sounds like this would be an ideal thing to have in our nation, I think that is part of the problem we have. Too many people think it is the government’s job to lead people to God. But that is not the way God set things up. Jesus told His followers to tell other people about Him, who He is and what He did for us through His life and death and resurrection. The message of reconciliation and forgiveness is to be shared by every believer with the people in their sphere of influence. You need to be the ones who share the hope that is in you, that Jesus paid for your sin and the sin of the whole world, and that everyone who trusts in Him receives His pardon and peace.

Instead of just wishing that we had rulers like the one David describes here, why don’t we all strive to live the life he outlines. If we would sing of God’s love and justice, voice our praise to Him publicly, and have the mindset to live according to His Word and His Will, how far would that go in making this world a better place? Especially if we would speak this truth in love?

Something for all of us to consider today.

In my last two devotions I have mentioned this passage.

2 Chronicles 7:14 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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Today I want to dign deeper into this with you. This passage presents a logical progression, a condition and response, an “If … Then” statement. One of the first things I learned in programming computers was about “If … Then” statements. These occur everywhere. Their purpose is to determine the outcome.

• IF a condition is true, the part of the program after the word THEN takes place.
• IF the condition is false, the part after the word THEN is ignored.

That is what God is setting up here in response to Solomon’s prayer.

IF my people…again, these are His chosen people that He is speaking to, those with whom He already has a relationship. He sets up four conditions

• Humble themselves – This was important. Under David, Israel had become a world power. Under Solomon’s reign Israel grew even more. It would be easy for them to forget about God and think they had done it all by their own power. They needed to acknowledge what God had done for them in humility.
• Pray – God’s people are reminded to speak to Him. This was not for God’s benefit, but for theirs. By speaking to God they would remind themselves where their help came from.
• Seek His face – The people with whom God already has a relationship are encouraged to seek His face, to try to get close to Him, to stay in His presence. This means they would understand who He is and what He would have them do.
• Turn from their wicked ways – This is what it means to repent: to do a 180, an about face, to turn away from sin and towards God.

God tells His people if they will humble, pray, seek and turn, THEN He will

• Hear – He will listen and be aware of our situation
• Forgive – Because of faith in His promises, people can be forgiven by God.
• Heal this land, which was a reference to easing the suffering and problems.

God’s actions were promised in response to His people believing in Him. The IF part of the formula describes faith in action. The THEN part of the formula is God’s promise to His faithful people. God is doing the promising, the acting, the giving. The people were merely invited to take God up on His offer.

You  and I are people who already have a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. In His love and mercy He has reached out to us with the offer of forgiveness for Jesus sake. Through His life and death and resurrection He has done all that is necessary for us to be saved, to be God’s people called by His name. Because of that, because God has chosen us to be His people, these words from 2 Chronicles also apply to us. Let’s go through the outline again, making it more personal:

IF my people – you and I who are His children through faith in Jesus.

• Humble – When things are going well, we forget about God and assume that is just the way things should be if you work hard, rather than recognizing our good fortunes as blessings from God. We need to humbly acknowledge that God’s providence has blessed us tremendously, giving us homes and family, work and leisure, freedom and liberty. Be humble before God.
• Pray – This is an admonition bears repeating. If you want God to answer you, you have to speak to Him. Let Him know that you know He is there and in control by talking to Him.
• Seek – We need to seek His face always. We want to be on His good side, which is what this phrase implies. We don’t want God to turn His back on us, but desire to be where His face shines on us. We want to live always in His presence.
• Turn – We do that by admitting our sins and turning from them. That does not mean a thoughtless recitation of “I, a poor miserable sinner…” but a heartfelt admission that it was my sin, my guilt, that caused Jesus to die. That kind of admission will bring about a turning.

If you and I will humble and pray and seek and turn THEN God will:

• Hear – we know that God hears, since He promised that He would for Jesus’ sake.
• Forgive – That is what Jesus had come for. That is what He did. He gave Himself up for us, died and rose again so that we might be forgiven. Faith in Him makes that forgiveness your possession. God forgives you for Jesus’ sake.
• Heal – Easing of the suffering and problems all around us. Let’s face it, our lives and our nation need healing. People are not civil to one another in the public square. This nation of ours is one of the finest on earth, but it is still in need of a lot of healing. As those who are part of the family of faith, part of that nation whose God is the Lord, we have a responsibility to live up to. If you want the United States of America to be a nation under God, you must be a people under God. Take your stands for God, make your voices heard, Lift High the Cross. Share the Good News so that more people will be God’s people. And show God’s love in your words and your actions. If you and I are living the way God tells us to in this passage, that will go a long way toward healing this land.

We must take God at His Word.

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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

We have been promised that when we humble ourselves, pray, seek, and turn from our wickedness, GOD will hear, forgive, heal –for Jesus Sake!

My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD Almighty. (Malachi 1:11)

God’s name is great. It always will be because of who He is. But that does not mean everyone recognizes God for who He is. In fact, more and more people in this country have rejected God and choose to live as though He does not exist. They do not consider Him or His name to be great.

Luther gave us an important reminder in his explanation of the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer.

Hallowed be Thy name.

What does this mean? God’s name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be kept holy among us also.

How is God’s name kept holy? God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father!

Luther wants us to remember that it is our responsibility to keep God’s name holy by the way we live our lives, what we do and what we do not do.

A passage that has been very popular in this nation over the last couple of decades is 2 Chronicles 7:14.  You see it on yard signs and bumper stickers and lots of other places. It is a great verse because it encourages God’s people to humbly pray and seek God with the promise that God will forgive and bless them. But pay attention to how the passage starts.

2 Chronicles 7:14 …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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

We are the people called by God’s name. The world recognizes us as such. His name was placed on us when we were baptized. That sacrament joins us to everything Jesus did for us. His death for sin is our death for sin. His victory over death is our victory over death. We have the certainty of forgiveness and life eternal because we have been called to faith in Jesus and we have His name on us. It is our job, our calling, our duty to represent Him in a way that will let His greatness be evident.

This is more important now than ever, especially in light of the deep divisions in this nation and the coming conflict over recent Supreme Court rulings. Let your words and your actions be a reflection of our great God, His love, and His compassion.

Remember our goal, summarized at the end of the hymn “Sent forth by God’s Blessing:”

“Then may all the living, with praise and thanksgiving, give honor to Christ and His name that we bear.”

A large manufacturing company was having production problems. They were not sure what the problem was, much less how to fix it. They tried a few in-house solutions, but there was no improvement, no increase in productivity. Finally, they decided to bring in an outside consultant. One man in particular came highly recommended. They called him and he agreed to come immediately. He showed up and spent about two hours walking around the plant, observing everything. Finally, at the end of those two hours, he took a piece of chalk out of his pocket, walked to a spot in the assembly line, and put a big X on the floor. He said, “Here’s your problem. If you streamline this spot, you will see a tremendous improvement.” The management was somewhat skeptical, but they took his advice and overnight productivity went through the roof! They could not have been any happier, that is, until a few days later when they got the bill from the consultant. They opened up the bill and it said, “Consulting fees:  $50,000.00” The manager thought that was outrageous. The consultant had only been there for two hours! How could he justify charging that much? He called the consultant and demanded an itemized billing. The next day, he received another envelope from the consultant. It was the itemized bill. The first line said, “One piece of chalk, $1.00.” The second line said, “Knowing where to put the ‘X’ $49, 999.00.”

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still  sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! (NIV)

The cross marks the spot! God knew what needed doing. He knew when it needed doing. And He knew who needed to do it.

God Knew What Needed Doing. Here’s the problem: We were powerless. We were ungodly. We were sinners, separated from God by our sins. Reconciliation was what needed doing. Restoration was what needed doing. Redemption was what needed doing. And we could not do any of those things ourselves. Remember, we were powerless. That is what sin does to you. It gets you in its grip and convinces you there is no hope. You are stuck. And if you are relying on your own willpower or effort or fortitude to get you out of that mess, you are out of luck. It won’t happen. You can’t do it. What needed doing had to come from outside of us, and it did. Christ died for the ungodly. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He made the payment our sins had earned. He stepped in to take our punishment so that we could be spared, and in doing so gave us hope.

God knew when it needed doing. At just the right time, while we were still powerless, God did what needed doing. While we were enemies we were reconciled to God.

God knew who needed to do it. It wasn’t us! We were powerless. We were enemies of God. We were unable to do what needed doing at any time. But we … rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. At just the right time God sent His Son to do what needed doing, and He was the only one who could do it. Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary. This one who is the God-man came into this world for this very purpose: to redeem me, a lost and condemned creature, to purchase and win me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own, and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns through all eternity. This is most certainly true.

The cross marked the spot. God knew what needed doing. He knew when it needed doing. And He knew who needed to do it. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

What about the bill? If you were to receive an itemized bill, it might say, “One Cross – no charge.” “Knowing who to put on the cross and when to put Him there – priceless, but still no charge to you.” And at the bottom, it would say, “Paid in full by your Savior, Redeemer and Friend, Jesus Christ.”

Recently I re-watched a forty year old movie: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. They were searching for the Ark of the Covenant, constructed during the Exodus and represented God’s presence among His chosen people of Israel.  You probably know the plot of the movie. In the 1930s, Indiana Jones is a globetrotting, swashbuckling archaeologist who gets in and out of dangerous situations as he follows clues to determine the location of the ark. One thing he needs to find is a medallion that has an inscription on it. It is in the possession of an old girlfriend of his, so he goes to get it from her in Nepal. Unfortunately, a Nazi is also looking for the medallion and shows up as well. A fight scene ensues, a fire breaks out and the Nazi spots the medallion that has been heated up by the fire. He reaches to grab it, but hot metal sears his palm, the most sensitive part of the hand. And even though he dropped the medallion and left it behind, the bad guy had a reminder of it, as well as part of the inscription that he needed. He had a permanent reminder of the medallion.

As odd as it may sound, whenever I see this scene in the movie, it reminds me that I am remembered by God. The reason for that connection in my mind is because of what we read in Isaiah 49.

Isaiah 49:13-16  13 Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones. 14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! 16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…

At times, we may complain with Zion, The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me. We can all feel abandoned and forgotten. But our God responds to that complaint by asking a question:  Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Unfortunately, when we get past all the pious platitudes about the powerful love of motherhood, we must admit the answer is “yes.” A mother can forget her child. We have seen the cruelty that people are able to display in their sinfulness: Women capable of not just forgetting or abandoning their children, but even killing them, before and after birth, without compassion. It may seem unthinkable to us, but it happens. The idea that a mother could forget her own nursing baby is seemingly beyond the realm of possibility, and yet it can and does happen. God’s point here is that as powerful as the bond of motherhood is, mothers, by nature, are prone to sin, and therefore they may forget.

But here is God’s promise to you: Though she may forget, I will not forget you! That is the Good News, God’s promise to you. His love and kindness are eternal. That love has found its expression in Jesus Christ, who entered our world to take our sins and pay their cost. Jesus offered Himself to appease God’s righteous anger, and He satisfied the judgment that stood against us. God did this because He remembered you and He remembers you still.

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.  God has your image with Him at all times, engraved the palms of His hands. And consider how that engraving took place, what was used to put that reminder on His palms: A hammer and nails engraved you on the palms of Jesus’ hands. This engraving was Painful, yet Jesus was willing to be crucified for our sake. It is also Permanent, it will not go away. You are engraved on the palms of His hands. God Remembers you.