I Need You and You Need Me revised

I Need You and You Need Me

2 Chronicles 7:13-14 (12-16)

Introduction:

            If there is one thing that is certain to instill fear in the average person today it is the thought of having to call on someone else for help.  Because we live in a dog eat dog world, a society that that says you better get yours, a world that is constantly asking what’s in it for me we walk around with our defenses up not accepting and not giving help to anyone.  This is particularly true in the black community because we as a people have been let down so many times.  We have been abused, overlooked; degraded and misused so much that our faith in humanity is nonexistent.  To this day we sit around wondering when will we receive our 40 acres and a mule, when will we receive reparations from slavery, when will we not have to defend and fight for affirmative action, when will our country accept us and stop systematically denying us of our human rights?  I hate to be the one to break the news to you but the answer is never!  The question is when will we as a people stop hurting our own for a chance at success.  When will we stop killing one another for a crumb off of the piece of the pie?  We have turned on one another so much that it has become an epidemic. This epidemic has very creatively been called the crab in the barrel syndrome.  But I dare say that within our own society exist another society and it has an epidemic worse than the crab in the barrel syndrome and it is called the crab out the barrel syndrome! 

            The crab in the barrel syndrome is when a group of people pull one another down preventing anyone from making it to the top!  But the crab out the barrel syndrome is when one of us sneaks out and makes it to the top but instead looking back to help he turns his back and run.  This society within the black community that suffers from this epidemic called the crab out the barrel syndrome is called the church!  To many people have the attitude of I’m saved and that’s all that matters.  I’m blessed forget about everybody else.

I.                   He aint heavy analogy!

a.       The space in between appears to be ground that needs to be covered

b.      It actually is space one of them is refusing to cover

II.                For various reasons we don’t allow others close to us in the church.  We worry and say things like

a.       If I let you help me you’ll steal my glory

b.      If I let you help me you may replace me

c.       If I let you help me you’ll change my ideas

d.      If I ask for help they’ll know I don’t have it all together

e.       If I ask for help they will thinks I’m weak

f.       If I ask for help they’ll know I’ve sinned before

III.             You and I come to church and sing songs like as long as I got King Jesus I don’t need nobody else. 

a.       But truth be told no matter how spiritual you are from time to time you will need help from someone on earth.

IV.             Understand yes God provides all your needs

a.       Yes he will be mother to the motherless

b.      Yes he will be a father to the fatherless

c.       Yes He is a lawyer in a court room

d.      Yes He is a Doctor in hospital

e.       Yes He will make a way out of no way! 

V.                But the book of Hebrews says

a.       23let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for he is faithful that promised: 24and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works; 25not forsaking our own assembling together

b.      IAW I was not designed to make it on my own

c.       I need you and You need me to survive, I can’t make it on my own

VI.             When you encounter someone who does not want help and will not help

a.       Be a gap stander-  be the person who fills the gap between the two hands

b.      IAW pray for them.

c.       Its easy to give money and donate stuff you no longer need

d.      But can you pray for someone other than yourself?

VII.          The prayer of the righteous availeth much

a.       James 5:  16… and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

b.      Never under estimate the power of prayer…

VIII.       “My people who are called by my name”

a.       This speaks directly to me and you

b.      1 John 3:1 says we are children of God

c.       Just like Jacob we needed a name change

                                                                          i.      A new name with God in it so when he calls us we know

IX.             God says do three things:

X.                Humble themselves and pray (humble in prayer)

a.       Webster defines humble-to have a feeling of inferiority or insignificance

b.      I have a more Biblical definition for you:

                                                                          i.      Treat God as if He is smarter than you

                                                                        ii.      Wiser than you

                                                                      iii.      More Holy than you

                                                                      iv.      More sovereign than you

                                                                        v.      More powerful than you

                                                                      vi.      As if He could function without you

c.       God does not need your help nor your vote

d.      He is God no matter how you feel today or tomorrow

e.       To be humble is to function with full knowledge everything that you do is a privilege because of His grace and mercy and a sacrifice someone else made

XI.             Turn from there wicked ways

a.       Israel were a fickle ever changing people

b.      One minute they loved and served God, the next they did not

c.       God is saying don’t bring all your junk into your prayer closet

d.      To enter into my presence their must be transformation

e.       You must do away with some things you use to put up with

f.       What you use to pray for you should pray not to get 

g.      This is why God told Moses to take off his shoes

XII.          Seek My Face

a.       The end result of your prayer should be to experience the presence of God

b.      Yes we pray for blessings, peace joy  and healing

c.       But you should have an attitude of no matter what I pray I want to see God!  Because if you receive anything w/o His presence you won’t know how to appreciate it

d.      And you will not give God the glory for it

XIII.       If you humble and pray, change your ways and seek God He promises to

XIV.       Hear from Heaven

a.       God’s reassurance that the answer to your prayer is divine

b.      God answers in one of three ways

                                                                          i.      Yes

                                                                        ii.      No

                                                                      iii.      Not Yet- Keishon reaching for a snack while I’m pulling him out the car.  He was really prolonging the process

XV.          Forgive their sin

a.       When you were saved God forgave your past and future sins

b.      Salvation was the beginning not the end

c.       Stuff without forgiveness can be unfulfilling and destructive.

d.      This is why you see and hear stories about rich people doing crazy stuff.  Because they are walking around w/o the knowledge of God’s grace!

XVI.       Heal the land

a.       “Not only will I forgive you but I will fix you”

b.      He had to fix my mind so I wouldn’t want to do the things I use to do.

                                                                          i.      Go places I use to go

                                                                        ii.      Hang out with people I use to hang out with

c.       It says heal the land because this is bigger than you and I

d.      If you are my neighbor and God promises to heal the land my success is linked to your success.  So if I want to make I have to pray for you and you have to pray for me!

XVII.    Consider the full context of this scripture to see how much God has empowered you.

a.       We know who is speaking- God

b.      We know what He is saying- pray for one another

c.       When is He speaking; after the opening of Solomon’s temple

                                                                          i.      Sacrificed animals by the thousands

                                                                        ii.      The priest were singing and playing music

                                                                      iii.      It says they sang as if with one voice- they were on one accord

                                                                      iv.      When the presence of God fell and smoke filled the temple the priest c/n keep ministering

                                                                        v.      All the people fell to the ground and worshiped

                                                                      vi.      The feast and dedications service lasted several weeks

                                                                    vii.      When it was all over and the King sent the people home and no one else was around God spoke!

                                                                  viii.      After you leave church do you hear a word from God.  When you are all along, we have all received the benediction and gone our separate ways and nobody’s around do you hear God’s voice?  That is the whole purpose of church so you can learn to see and here God for yourself!

d.      Who God is talking to- Solomon

                                                                          i.      The wisest man ever to live

                                                                        ii.      King of Israel, mighty King David’s lil boy

                                                                      iii.      Born heir to the thrown of Israel

                                                                      iv.      Set up for success

                                                                        v.      He was so wealthy that silver and gold were as common as rocks

                                                                      vi.      Was called to Build an elaborate temple for God b/c no King before him was worthy

Yet God shows up and says not by your prayer Solomon, but by their prayer.  Yes you are a great and wise leader, righteous before me, but not by your prayer.  God showed up and said not by Solomon’s prayer, not by the prayers of the Livetical Priest, not by the prayer of the sons of Aaron, not by the prayer of the trumpet players but if my people, the average foke, would humble themselves and pray, turn from their wicked ways, seek My face then I will perform a mighty work in this land, then you will see what kind of God I really am.  All trying to say is that God has called the one voted least likely to succeed to play a mighty role in the body.  He said not by the Pastor’s prayer, not by the minister’s prayer, not even the Deacons and the ushers.  God said I’m looking for someone who doesn’t get to sing a solo, someone who’s name is not in the bulletin, the one who doesn’t have a title, if they humble themselves seek my face lift up the body of Christ in prayer then will I heal the land, then will I grow a great church.  You see God loves the under dog, the one who we always count out…