Identity, Nationality and the Blessing of God

As we celebrate the 250th birthday of our country, many people are asking: Can America be saved? And, tucked into these conversations, one verse is quoted more than any other––a verse that promises God will heal our land. Pastor Nick Gatzke re-examines this verse to find out what God has actually promised and to whom.

Every one of us wants our country to be blessed, don’t we? I mean, I love our country. I’m grateful to God for the things that we enjoy in our country, the opportunity to live here, the men and women that have gone before us, those who sacrificed for our freedoms, especially that freedom to worship God freely or greatly without the threat of persecution in this time. Many people have asked the question, is there a way that we can ensure that America is a nation that is blessed? Is there a formula? Are there specific actions or ideas that we must embrace? Not that just America will be prosperous, but indeed that America would be blessed by the very hand of God himself.

Today we continue our series called rethinking your favorite Bible verse and we look at a verse that many people claim hopes for the United States of America in that God will indeed bless our country. The verse is called or found in the book of second Chronicles chapter 7 verse 14. Some of you have heard it before God says to Solomon “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” It almost sounds like a formula. Doesn’t it? Humble themselves, pray, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways with the result of bringing blessing or even bringing revival, but there are a lot of questions about this passage that we have to ask to see if this is even proper for us to think about it in this way for the United States of America. Some of the ones that come to my mind are is this passage simply applicable to Old Testament Israel or can it be applied to nations today? Can we take it indeed as a simple formula if we do these four things and we can expect this to happen? Is America a country that is uniquely blessed among the nations of the world? And if so, what does that blessing look like? What do we expect from it? Can we expect it to continue? Let’s dig a little bit deeper to see what the real meaning of this favorite Bible verse is. The question that we are seeking to answer is how can we be blessed by God? We want that for our families.

We want it on this holiday weekend specifically for this country. And so I want you to turn with me to second Chronicles chapter 7. And you can find that on page 364 of that pew Bible, second Chronicles chapter 7, as we look at what God says to his people Israel. And as you’re turning let me give you a little bit of context here. Here we see in second Chronicles that the people of Israel led by King Solomon have built their temple to God in the previous chapter second Chronicles chapter 6, which I’ll reference more throughout the message, is all a dedication ceremony of this temple their specific prayers and actions that take place in which Solomon leads the people of God in dedicating this house to him

And as they come to the end of the prayers, we pick it up in verse seven, one, when it says this. “As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices. And the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priest could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. And when all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord saying, for he is good. His steadfast love endures forever.”

From that moment, we saw that Solomon led the people in sacrifices. 22 ,000 oxen were sacrificed, 120 ,000 sheep. He led them in a feast for seven days, all Israel in a great assembly. And then God came to Solomon and spoke to him in a dream. Look with me at verse 11. This is what he says. “Thus, Solomon finished the house of the Lord in the king’s house and all that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord in his own house, he successfully accomplished. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and he said to him, I’ve heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.

When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. As for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with David your father. saying, you shall not lack a man to rule Israel, but if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you and go to serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and that will make it a proverb and a byword among all the peoples. And at this house which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?

Then they will say, because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore, he has brought all this disaster on them.” So we see in the middle of this favorite verse that so many of us desire to claim for our own country, we see both blessing and warning from God. And in the middle, American Christians are tempted to try to place ourselves in this story because we want to receive a unique blessing from God himself. We want precise instruction how to receive that blessing. We want a formula to help us enjoy God’s presence. And yet in this text, we see.

Maybe the more general idea that blessings from God are really only formulated by a priority for God. Blessings from God are formulated by priority for God. And we really see this in three ways. The first way that we see it is in the right understanding of who we are. You know, identity is a powerful conception. If I were to ask you, what makes you you? What is your identity? I would probably get a number of different answers. Some of you would talk about your family and where you came from.

Some of you might mention your nationality that you are Americans or from other countries, some of you would give me some details about your job or about your interests or about your relationships Identity, who we are, who we conceive ourselves to be, is a powerful reality. God addresses the identity of this group of people in second Chronicles 7:14 by calling them my people. And as much as we would like to apply this idea of of the passage to America God’s people in the Old Testament had a unique identity; they were set apart by him as he showed himself to them again and again and again, as he showed the world himself through them. And he did this through a series of actions and through covenants. In this way, they were completely unique in their identity. But Christians, you need to know. If you’re here today, you need to know that you too can have a unique identity that’s found in the person of God himself. It’s not the same identity that Old Testament Israel had. But this identity that you can have that’s found in God himself is greater than your nationality. It’s greater than your job. It’s even greater than your bloodlines, greater than your family.

Because this identity is found when you put your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and when you become a Christian, you become a child of God, truly part of his family, which supersedes all these other conceptions of our identity and this identity lasts forever. Now it looks different than the identity of Old Testament Israel when God refers to my people in the Old Testament, he’s not talking about you, he’s not talking about me. He’s talking about them specifically. They were related to God through sacrifices for the forgiveness of their sins

We, Christians today, are relating to God through one sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, who paid the penalty for all. They were relating to God through promises or covenants. We relate to God through faith. They were promised a unique physical land that they took hold of. But we, we’re not promised any land at all. We’re not even promised a nation that will prosper. In fact, 1 Peter 2, 11 calls Christians aliens and exiles, those who are wandering about with no place to really call home, because our home is in heaven. So God doesn’t give us a land.

But he does give us a kingdom and part of understanding your identity is understanding the fact that as wonderful as it is to be an American, God is not ultimately interested in building great countries, but he is interested in building a great people, and this kingdom that you are a part of, though invisible in its present time will become visible in the right time. A right understanding of who you are Helps you understand how God’s blessings are applied, and identity is such an important thing for us. Because when you understand that your identity is not rooted in your nationality, it’s not rooted in your job, it’s not rooted in your relationships, it’s not even rooted in your family, there’s a greater identity, then you begin to understand the nature of God’s blessings. Blessing from God is formulated by a priority for God. We see it in a second way in this text as well, and that is that we see blessing is found by asking for the right things.

The promise of 2 Chronicles chapter 7 verse 14, “if my people humble themselves and pray and seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then I’ll hear from heaven, I’ll forgive their sin and heal their land.” This promise of God is in direct response to the requests of the people that Solomon prays in chapter six. And it’s striking that as we look at the requests, we see a reality in which they’re not ultimately concerned or primarily concerned about their physical or material wellbeing. They’re not concerned about making their nation great. At least not only. The requests are all rooted in first, their spiritual reality to God, and then secondly in the physical outcomes.

There’s an overwhelming response again and again and again. They’re asking God for practical physical material things, but it’s never disconnected from their spiritual reality or the priority of God in their life. There’s an assumption that when we stray, bad things are gonna happen. The consequences will catch up sooner or later. But God, please show grace and kindness and mercy when your people place you in the right position of priority. They’re concerned about the spiritual state of their nation and this is illustrated most pointedly in the fact that God and only God knows our hearts. Look at verse 29 of chapter 6 with me. He’s bringing these prayers to a culmination

When he lists off in 28 any number of bad things that can happen and he responds by saying whatever prayer, whatever the prayer is, whatever plea is made by any man or by all of your people Israel each one knowing his own affliction, his own sorrow and stretching out his own hands toward this house then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive and render to each whose heart you know, according to all of his ways, for you, you only know the hearts of the children of mankind, that they may fear you and walk in your ways all the days they live in the land that you gave to our fathers

Blessings from God are formulated from a priority for God. We see this when we understand who we are. We see this when we ask for the right things. Thirdly, we see it in responding in the right way. And that’s where we get to this verse that so many people hold near and dear to their heart, 2 Chronicles 7, 14. God’s engagement with Solomon comes through these prayers and then God appears to him in a dream. And he mentions these four things. We’ll say it again. If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and they pray and they seek my face and they turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sins and I will heal their land. This might sound like a formula.

But there’s nothing formulaic about it because when you really start to look at what’s happening here, these are just simply the practical ways that people prioritize God in their lives if you prioritize God in your life particularly through your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In this gospel, this good news that he gives for the forgiveness of your sins then these things are commonplace among you. You humble yourself before him and that comes with the recognition that he is infinitely greater than we are and that he knows more than we do There’ll be no shortage of voices in our time and day that claim that God’s knowledge is limited

Whether they say it that explicitly or whether they say it through their actions. Well, God didn’t think about our culture today or my family situation is unique, or you know, the challenges that our government has or or whatever that might be But to humble yourself before God is to know not only is he greater than you but he knows more than you And so we look for his instruction blessings from God are formulated by a priority for God Is this a formula for revival if we do this? Will God bless us? How does God bless a nation? What does it look like? Comfort, peace, prosperity, freedom. I love our country but it is not the greatest piece of my identity. And it isn’t yours either. There’s a greater priority. And we consider our response to God all we try to do for him, but we realize that in Jesus there’s something infinitely more important that he has done for us. There’s a greater priority. In fact, it’s interesting to see how different seasons of our lives dictate the level of priority that we put on things. There’s a great reversal in this life when we face the realities of eternity, isn’t there? The things that the world seems to think as worthless become priceless.

And the things that the world seems to think are priceless become worthless. And this points to how we live right now. Blessings from God are formulated by a priority for God. How does God change a nation? I don’t know. I don’t know. But I want our nation to be blessed. But God doesn’t promise that he will bless our nation the same way that he does in the Old Testament. In fact, I don’t even think that God is particularly interested in changing a nation. But I think he’s very interested in changing a people. How does God build a kingdom for himself?

Now, that’s a much better question. And the answer is priority. Blessings from God are formulated by a priority for God. And so as we celebrate this weekend, as we sit around with our families, our neighbors, our friends, kids playing in the backyard, the barbecue, going, be thankful to God for what we have in our country. And at the same time recognize that our identity is even greater than this. That his priority is even greater than making America great again. That God isn’t in the business of simple nation building, he is in the business of people building. And that people is you.

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** This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.