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So these are my sermon notes for today the second in the series we are doing in my church (Chatswood Presbyterian Church) on II Chronicles. Just to emphases these are my sermon notes, I did not write the sermon. The speaker and author was my senior minister Jeff Read. Also because they are sermon notes, takes as the sermon was being preached they may not be grammatically correct and appear a little disjointed.
II Chronicles Part Two An Audience With God Jeff Read II Chronicles 5:2-7:22
2009 Barack Obama was granted an audience with the queen.
He was looking forward to meeting the queen.
They had an audience with the queen.
There is a complicated etiquette to meeting the queen.
Even for the Obamas.
Including
You can t invite yourself to meet the queen.
The queen invites.
You can t touch the queen.
You have to wait until she extends her hand.
No hugs, kisses, touching.
Refer to the queen as your majesty and them mam.
You must never turn your back to the queen.
There are gift giving rules
Must be modestly dressed
Must eat with restraint.
Must stop eating when the queen does.
We expect etiquette when we meet the queen.
When it comes to God we think it will be easy.
We think we can just turn up and he will accept us into his presence.
Is it really like this?
Solomon showed his worship to God by building the temple.
God comes to the temple in this temple.
Solomon decides to put the Ark of the Covenant in the temple.
In the holy of holies
God dwells there above the ark.
Solomon does this the right way, learning from David s error in I Chronicles.
This had a specific procedure.
II Chronicles 5:2-7
God s glory comes in the form of a cloud
Similar to Exodus
II Chronicles 5:13
Solomon prays to God
Two long prayers
II Chronicles 6:10-11
He asks that God keeps the promise of one of David s line on the throne
II Chronicles 6:16
He acknowledges God can t be contained in the temple, but prays that he will hear the prayers of the people and give forgiveness
II Chronicles 6:20-21
The rest of the prayer is him talking through issues elaborating on this request for forgiveness.
Enemies II Chronicles 6:24-25
Drought II Chronicles 6:27
Famine II Chronicles 6:30-31
Foreigners II Chronicles 6:32-33
Wars II Chronicles 6:34-35
II Chronicles 6:36-39 Summarised and makes it real for the readers post exile
Again the glory of the lord is described
II Chronicles 6:40-41
Fire comes down and the glory of the Lord is there.
They celebrate with sacrifices and music.
II Chronicles 7:11-16
A number of years later God appears to Solomon and says he has heard his prayer
God talks to Solomon about having a person in the line of David on the throne God says it is in your court.
II Chronicles 6:17-22
God grants an audience to his people and does forgive his people, but warns them it is not a blank cheque you must turn from your sin and live for me.
There is protocol you must follow them
There are sacrifices
Priests
Israel must live a certain way
S
olomon -950 BC
Book written 400 BC
The author has written this to challenge and encourage the readers
Why this story in 400 BC?
The people have seen a lot of the things in Solomon s prayer and answer.
They did forsake God and they were exiled
God has given them another chance and the temple has been rebuilt
He has promised that he will dwell in this temple forever
It is encouraging
Also challenging they are turning from sin, following the temple rules with priests and coming with sacrifices
What about us?
Three points
1. It is not easy to get an audience with God.
We are sinners
Solomon said himself there is no one who does not sin
We cannot approach God and have an audience unless our sin is dealt with and we have what Solomon prayed for.
What we need is a temple, a sacrifice, a priest.
Don t you dare to come before God without your sacrifice
Yet here we are in church
As if we have an audience with God
But there are no sheep here
There is no priest
There is no temple
How can we have an audience with God?
2. There is only one way to have an audience with God, through Jesus
Jesus is God
Jesus is the temple
Jesus is the sacrifice
Jesus came as the risen eternal sinless priest, interceding on our behalf.
We, frail, sinful mortals are here having an audience with the God of the universe
As we rely on Jesus we do have an audience with God
3. This is not a blank cheque
We must turn from sin
II Chronicles 7:14
We must live his way
Michael Fagan broke into the palace on July 9 1982
He sat on the bed of the queen
You don t just sit with the queen
The people were outraged and he was committed to a mental asylum for six months.
You must follow proper etiquette
It is the same with God
There is only one way you can do this
Do not dare to come any other way
But do come the right way
Do trust in Jesus
Do give thanks to God with Jesus as your rescuer.
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