Rick Warren - How to Pray for Healing and Restoration

How do you pray for healing and restoration? I'm talking

about physical healing, but I'm talking about more than that too.

Healings of minds, healings of relationships, healings of finances, and

so many different areas where there needs to be a restoration,

there needs to be a healing. What I wanna do

is I wanna quickly explain how to pray for healing,

something you need to know. And then we're gonna pray

for each other. About 3,000 years ago, God made a

promise to King Solomon. And that promise still stands today

because it's a promise made to all his people. If

you'll look at your message notes, at the top of

the outline, 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14, one of the

2 Chronicles 7:14

very most important and most Well-known promises in the entire Bible,

2 Chronicles 7, 14. If my people who are called

by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face,

turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven.

I will forgive their sins and I will heal their land.

I want you to circle that word heal I will

hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins, I will

heal their land. Now, I wanna point out a couple

things before we actually tear this verse apart today in

our study together. The first thing I wanna point out

is that this is not a promise for everybody. God

didn't make this promise to everybody. But he says this,

if my people, If my people, this is a promise

for the people of God. Who are the people of God? Well,

look up here on the screen. One day, somebody asked

Jesus that. And the Bible says in Matthew 12, when

Jesus was teaching the crowd, his mother and his brothers

waited nearby to speak to him. By the way, some

people don't realize Jesus had brothers and sisters. He was

just the oldest. Now, they were all half brothers and

sisters because Joseph was the dad, but And you know,

God was the dad of Jesus. But it's very clear,

we even have the names of Jesus' brothers and sisters.

So Mary had children. It's real clear, they're in the Bible.

In fact, one of Jesus' half-brothers named James became the

leader of the church in Jerusalem and wrote a book

in the Bible and it's called James. Hmm, his half-brother.

So Mary certainly had kids. It's in scripture. Now let's

go back to that. While Jesus was teaching the crowd,

his mother and brothers waited nearby to speak to him.

So they're standing at the edge of the crowd. Somebody

told Jesus, your family wants to talk to you. Jesus asked,

who's my family? He always turns everything into a teaching incident.

Then pointing to his followers, he said, these people are

my family. Anybody who obeys my father in heaven and

does his will, does the father's will, is my brother.

and my sister, and my mother. So, question. Have you

done what the father said? And the father said was

to receive his son. If you accepted Christ into your life,

if you have followed him, if you've become his follower,

his disciple, guess what? You're in the family. You're in

the family. So this verse is a promise for you.

If my people, you're his people. If you know the Lord,

you're his people. It's not a promise for everybody, but

it is for God's people. Now, the second thing I

want you to notice, he says, if my people who

were called by my name. I wonder if you're ever

embarrassed to identify yourself as a disciple. I wonder if

you're ever embarrassed to say, I'm a Christian. I'm a

follower of Jesus. I'm a disciple of Christ. If my

people who were called by my name You know, everybody

else is bold about their beliefs today. But a lot

of Christians, they don't say a word at the office.

Nobody knows. Years ago, there was a, everybody remember Lady Clairol?

I don't even know if they still have that anymore.

But it was like one of the original, you know,

dyes for your hair. And it was the Lady Clairol.

Only her hairdresser knows for sure. Do you remember that?

If you do, you're incredibly old, go home. Okay. There

are no Lady Clairol Christians, only God knows for sure.

There are no secret agent Christians. The Bible says, let

everyone who nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity,

and the Bible says, if you're a believer, then you

need to be called by his name. You need to

stand up, you need to say, I'm a Christian, I'm

a believer, I'm a follower of Christ. And he says,

if my people who are called by my name, look

back up here on the screen, the Bible says this

in Mark, if anyone, Jesus is talking, if anybody's ashamed

of me and my words and this unfaithful and immoral generation,

I'll be ashamed of him when I return in glory

with all my angels. I don't want that for you.

I don't want that for anybody in our church. that

you were ashamed of Christ to be called by his

name in this day and age? And Jesus said, well,

I'll be ashamed of you if you're ashamed of me. Now,

the third thing I want you to note as we're

just getting started, it says, if my people who are

called by my name, and then he gives four conditions.

And he says, if you humble yourself and you pray

and you seek my face and you turn from me

in wicked ways, then I'll hear from heaven, then I'll

forgive your sins, And then I'll heal you. I'll heal

your land. The point here is that with every promise,

there's a premise. There are conditions. And there are conditions here.

He says, I'll do this. But here are the conditions.

Here are the premises before the promise. And there are

four conditions of healing and restoration. Now, I don't know

what you need restored in your life. Maybe you need

your marriage restored. Maybe you need your dream restored. Maybe

you need your body restored. Maybe you need your health

restored or your finances restored. I don't know what needs

healing in your life, but the principles in this passage

apply to every area of healing and restoration. So if

you'll do what he says to do here and you

fully understand it, you can expect. God says, if you

do this, I will do that. So let's get right

into it, okay? Number one, Here's the first condition for

healing and restoration in any area of your life. Number one,

I admit I'm not in control. I admit that I'm

not in control. And what is that called? That's called humility.

It's saying God is God and I'm not. God is

God and I am not. The first condition for healing,

for restoration in your life, if my people will humble themselves,

humility is the first step to healing. What's he saying here? So,

you know, I don't approach God arrogantly. I don't come

to God proudly or I don't come to God flippantly.

I don't come to God disrespectfully. Hey man, how's it going?

Man upstairs, big daddy. I don't make demands in prayer. God,

you have to do this. God is not your genie.

God is not my genie. We've talked about this many times.

I don't come arguing, demanding, being arrogant. It says I

come humbly. If my people who are called by my

name will humble themselves. By the way, Did you know

that in the scripture, never are you ever commanded to

pray for humility? So you don't ever need to pray

for it. The Bible doesn't ever tell you, God, please

humble me. Really, you don't wanna ask him to do that.

It's humiliating. You are never to pray, God, humble me, why?

Because humility is a choice. Humility is something you do

to yourself. God doesn't do it to you, you do

it to yourself. Humility is a choice. And so instead

of saying pray for humility, it just says humble yourself.

It's something you do. And over and over in scripture

it says, instead of pray for humility, it says humble yourself,

humble yourself, humble yourself, humble yourself. It says it over

and over and over in the Old Testament and in

the New Testament. Humility is a choice. You say okay,

well if that's the first condition, for something to be

restored in my life, or something to be healed in

my life, I wanna know three things. What is humility?

What does it look like? How do I develop it?

How do I show God my humility? How do I

do that? Well, I'm glad you asked, because I made

a list. Here's 12 ways to show humility, real humility,

every single day. Number one. Confess your sin to God

the moment you realize it. So you're sitting there and

you say something wrong, you're angry, prideful, jealous, or whatever,

you go, wrong I'm sorry that's humble that's humility when

you keep short accounts with God you don't wait until

the end of the week to have a pile of

garbage you have to say Lord I got to take

out the garbage now no you take it out the

moment you do it God that wasn't right I'm sorry

And you just say it to God. You confess your

sin the moment you realize it. Number two, humility is

forgiving quickly. If you don't know how to forgive quickly,

that's prideful. If you carry grudges, that's prideful. Humility is

forgiving quickly. You never hold onto a grudge. Humble people

are forgiving quickly. Number three, when you're treated unfairly, be

quiet and patient and don't retaliate. That's real humility. You

are most like Christ. I am most like Christ when

I refuse to defend myself against false accusation. When people

attack you, when people say mean things about you, when

people say stuff that's untrue about you, and you don't

say a word, the Bible says that Jesus did this.

He was perfect, and yet he was maligned. He was misled.

He was accused of all kinds of stuff. They put

him on a cross for stuff that wasn't true. And

the Bible says when they stood before him, the governor, Pilate,

and others, it says, he spake not a word unto them.

I am most like Christ when I absorb the attacks.

You're most like Christ when you absorb the attacks. That's humility.

Number four, when you look for ways to serve others

instead of expecting to be served, that's humility. When you

accept criticism and correction graciously, That shows God your humility.

When you don't fight to get the best seat or

the best table or the best parking spot, that's humility.

Intentionally being friends, befriending people who have no status or

who can't help you or who are overlooked by society,

that's humility. Where you intentionally build relationships and build friendships

with people who don't, can't, won't serve you. Maybe they're

the unpopular person in the office or at school. But

you do that. That is a mark of humility. Humility

is being respectful to the authorities in your life, even

the bad ones. This stuff's not easy, is it? I'm

not giving you an easy list. Humility is when you

pick up the trash wherever you find it. Humility is

when you leave a public restroom cleaner than when you

found it. The little things, the stuff that nobody else

will see, God sees that. That's humility. When you admit

your weaknesses and your sins to a few safe people,

you don't have to tell everybody, but revealing your feelings

is the beginning of healing, we've talked about that many times.

When you're able to say, you know, I'm not good

at this, I'm weak at this, and this is my sin,

Here's where I'm struggling. This is my temptation. If there

was more confession of temptation in small groups, there'd be

less need for confession of sin. It would get stopped sooner.

That's humility. When you can admit what you're struggling with

in a small group or with a close friend. When

you always speak well of others, you never use put downs.

You never use put downs. You never stoop to the

level of people who put you down That's humility. When,

number 12, you pray for your enemies. Are you kidding me?

Jesus said it. Those people you really don't like, the

people you vote against, the people who you walk the

other way when you see them, pray for your enemies,

bless those who hate you. That's 12 marks of real humility.

Now why would anybody live like that? It's hard. It's hard.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It's thinking of

yourself less. Humility is you're so busy focused on God

and helping other people, he doesn't think about yourself. If

I go into a party and I walk in and

I start thinking, how do I look to everybody? Who

am I focused on? Me. That's pride. When I walk

into a party and I go in here and I go,

who needs encouragement? Who could probably use a word of

encouragement today? That's humility. Humility is not thinking less of yourself.

I'm bad, I'm no good, I'm nothing, I'm zero, I'm zip. No,

that's false humility. Humility is you're so busy focused on

God and other people, you don't just even think about yourself.

You're natural, you're normal, because you're focused on everybody else.

Now that's a hard way to live. Why would anybody

do it? Because of what God does when you do that.

And God says if you humble yourself, there are many, many, many,

many promises in scripture. God, I just say it this way.

Humility is a big deal to God. It's a lot

bigger deal than you realize. Humility is not false. I'm nothing,

I'm zero. You can be confident and humble at the

same time. You're just not focused on you. But God

loves humble people. Let me give you five things God'll

do in your life if you'll work on this. Write

these down. If I'm humble, God will guide me. If

I'm humble, God will guide me. You ever going, I

don't know what to do. I don't know what step

I should take. I don't know whether I should get

in or get out. I don't wanna sit, hold on

or let go. When you don't know which way to

turn and you're confused, get humble. If I'm humble, God

will guide me. Psalm 25, nine. God leads the humble

in the right way and he teaches them his will.

You wanna know God's will? God's will is not given

to prideful people, arrogant people, self-sufficient people. The humbler you are,

the more God will guide you, the fewer mistakes you'll

make in life. That's a benefit. Let me give you

a second benefit. If I'm humble, God will not only

guide me, he'll bless me. He's promised this all through scripture.

I just gave you one verse right there, Isaiah 66

verse two. I will bless those who have humble and

contrite hearts. God doesn't bless ego trippers. God doesn't bless

prideful people. God doesn't bless people who are, you know,

secretly think they're better than everybody else. No, he says,

I'll bless those who have humble and contrite hearts. Number three,

if I'm humble, God'll give me the power to change.

If I'm humble, God will give me the power to change.

You know what the power to change is? It's one word,

it's called grace. Grace is the power to change. You

need grace to make changes in your life. And there's

stuff in your life you'd like to change, but you can't,

you've tried, you won't. The only way you're gonna get

it changed is with the grace of God. How do

you get the grace of God in your life, the

power you need for change? Well, he says, James 4, 6,

God opposes the proud, but God gives grace to the humble.

The more humble you are, the more grace God gives you.

The more proudful you are, the more on the opposite

side you are, and you're gonna lose that battle because

your arms are too short to box with God. God

opposes the proud. Every time I'm prideful, I'm on the

opposite side of God. I don't wanna be there. You

don't wanna be there. But every time I'm humble, God

gives me the grace that I need. And what's that?

It's the power to change. He says, I'll guide you,

I'll bless you, I'll give you grace. Number four, if

I'm humble, God says, I will relieve your stress. When

I am humble, my stress goes down. When I'm prideful,

my stress goes up. It's true. Jesus says in Matthew 11, 29,

Take the yoke that I give you and learn from me,

for I'm gentle and I'm humble. See, Jesus is humble.

And he says, and I will restore the deep rest

for your soul. The deep rest for your soul. Wouldn't

you like that, the deep rest for your soul? How

do you get deep rest for your soul when you

think I'm all dried up, I got nothing to give,

I've got nothing left in me, the faucet, I'm tapped out,

it's gone. I'm at the end of my rope. I'm

ready to throw in the towel. All those expressions. How

do you get the deep rest you need? Humility. Look

at that. Take my yoke, learn from me, because I'm humble.

And he says, if you learn from me, he said,

then it will restore deep rest in your soul. So

humility begins with admitting I'm not in control. God, you're God,

and I'm not. The second key is ask God for help.

If you need something in your life restored, If you

need something in your life healed, first, admit I'm not

in control, humble myself, I can't do it on my own,

and second, I ask God for help. How do you

do that? If my people will pray, if my people

will pray, will pray. I ask God for help. And

when I ask God for help, I realize I'm not

waiting on God. He's been waiting on me. You know,

whatever you've wanted restored in your life, have you been

praying about it? Have you been asking God for that

kind of of help, he says, I'll give it to you.

And he says, I'll give you the kind of help

that you need. Now, the truth is, for many people, healing,

asking God for healing, God, I need healing in my body.

I need healing in my mind. I need healing in

my marriage. Healing is a scary thing to a lot

of people. So how do you do it? How do

you pray for healing? Let me just give you a

couple tips. Write these down. Let me give you four

or five tips right here on how do I say, Lord,

I need you. How do I say that? Well, you're

first gonna need some confidence to do this. So let's

look at this verse. John chapter 16, Jesus says this

John 16 · chapter mention

in verse 23 and 24. Jesus said, I tell you

the truth. My Father will give you anything you ask.

My Father will give you anything you ask for in

my name. Now until now, Jesus says, You haven't asked

for anything in my name. Ask. I want you to ask.

You know, over 20 times in the New Testament, you

are commanded by God to ask in prayer. He says

it over, ask and you'll be given. Seek and you'll find.

Ask anything, ask everything. Ask and you'll receive so that

your joy will be the fullest joy possible. Now that

verse gives us the first two tips in how to

pray for healing. I hope you're writing this down. Okay,

here's the first thing you do when you want to

pray for healing. First thing is, remember, Jesus wants me

to ask. That'll give you confidence. Whatever you've got going

on in your life, you know, well, I don't know

if I should pray for this. Jesus says, ask. And look,

he says there, he says, ask anything. Ask anything in

my name. He says, remember that I want you to ask.

It's his idea. Have you ever thought about this? We've

been talking about prayer for over a month now. Why

does God want you to ask for stuff in prayer?

Why does he do that? The reason God wants you

to ask for stuff in prayer is that's the only

way you're gonna learn how to trust him. It's like

with a parent and a child. How does a child

learn to trust a parent? The child has a need.

Then the child expresses the need, usually through crying. The

parent hears the need. The parent meets the need. The

child trusts the parent. And that's done thousands and thousands

of time growing up. That's how a child learns to

trust a parent. I have a need. I admit a need.

I express the need. The parent hears the need. The

parent meets the need. Trust. Repeat again. The same is

true with your heavenly father. If you're not asking God

for anything, you're not learning how to trust him. If

you're not asking God for anything, if you're not saying, Lord,

I need you, I need this, you're not asking him,

you're not trusting him. So in this verse, he says first,

Jesus wants me to ask, and the second thing, here's

the second tip, ask in Jesus' name. He says, ask

in my name. In other words, on the basis of

what Jesus paid for on the cross. Jesus paid for

everything you need on the cross. It's like if you

were to walk into a fancy restaurant and you'd had

no way of getting in there and you didn't know

anybody but you knew the owner and the owner said,

just flash my name when you walk in. You say,

I come in the name of Bob. Oh, come right in.

I come in the name of Bob. There's some places

you could use my name, it'll get you in. There's

some places you use my name, you get kicked out.

But when you come in the name of Jesus to

the Father, You got instant access. So I realize Jesus

wants me to ask and I realize, so I don't

need to be reticent or hesitant to pray for healing

of my body or anything else. He says, I want

you to ask. Ask anything in my name. And I

know what somebody's saying. You got an objection. Excuse me, Rick.

I don't get everything I pray for. What's wrong with

this verse? All right, let's just take it one step

at a time. First, you say I don't get everything

I pray for. What's up? Okay, look closely at that

verse right now. Do you see the word everything in

that verse? No, you see the word anything. What that

verse says is you can ask for anything. It doesn't

say I'll give you everything. Big difference between anything and everything.

Does that make sense? Jesus says, I don't want you

worrying about is this okay to pray for or not?

He says you can pray for anything, I'll figure out

whether it's legit or not. So if you trust God,

you say God, you told me to pray for anything, okay,

I'm gonna pray for this. God'll figure out whether that's

best for you at this time, it's part of his

plan for this time. He doesn't say I'll give you everything.

He says you can ask anything. I'll figure out which

of these are legit, which of these should be done

right now or not. So go ahead and ask. He

says he'll sort it out in his plan. And the

next verse there on your outline gives us two more tips.

In James five he says, is anyone of you in trouble?

He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs

of praise. We were doing that earlier. Is anyone of

you sick? He should call the elders of the church

to pray over him and anoint him with oil in

the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in

faith will make the sick person well. And the Lord

will raise him up. And if he sinned, he'll be forgiven.

All right, now, here's a third tip about how to

pray for healing based on that verse. Write this down.

I'm sorry, I didn't give you a lot of room

this week. Third tip. in praying for healing, get other

people to pray with you. That's important. Now it doesn't

have to be elders, here it's using elders, but anybody

in our church could pray for you, any believer could

pray for you, for your healing. And by the way,

we covered this when we covered he anoints my head

with oil, but there's no healing power in oil, but

it is a beautiful symbol of the Holy Spirit, so

it's fine. If you want to anoint someone with oil,

anoint them with oil. It's a symbol of God's presence

and spirit. There's nothing magical about it. Well, you say,

do I have to have some, do I have to

have a pastor? No. Do I have to have like

10 people? No, you could do it with one. Look

at this verse up here on the screen. Jesus said,

I tell you, if just two of you on earth

agree together about anything, there's that word again, Anything you

ask for, it doesn't say everything. It says anything you

wanna ask for, agree on it. It will be done

for you by my Father in heaven. He says, oh,

you only need two. You don't have to have like

50 people praying for you. Fine, get 50 people praying

for you. He says you could have two people, just

one other person. Now, in that verse that we just

read in James where he says, and the prayer of

faith will make the sick person well, that's the fourth tip.

believe and expect an answer. If you wanna pray for

healing for somebody, this is how you do it. Remember

Jesus wants me to ask, ask in Jesus' name, get

other people to pray with you, and believe and expect

an answer. He says the prayer of faith, offered in faith,

will make the sick person well. And then there's one

other tip, and it's in this next verse, Ephesians 5.16

or 5.18. It says there, pray in the spirit at

all times with all kinds of prayer, asking for all

that you need. To do this, you must always be ready,

never give up, always pray for all God's people. Are

you seeing all the alls in this verse? All the alls,

you might circle them all, all the alls and all

the alwayss. Pray all the time, all kinds of prayer

for all you need. Always be ready. Always pray for

all God's people. Circle the alls and the always. That's tenacity.

That's the fifth key to praying for someone's healing. Keep

on praying until God tells you to stop. You don't

like to pray one time and then say, well, forget that.

You just keep praying and you keep praying and keep

praying because God's timing is perfect. You don't know when

it is. Sometimes God does a restoration instantly. Sometimes he

does it in an hour or a day or a week.

Sometimes he takes years. God is responsible for the answer.

We're responsible to ask. All right? So if you need

healing in every area of your life, you need restoration,

first I admit I'm not in control and I evidence

my humility in all those different ways we talked about

and then I ask God for help And I'm not.

I'm not worried about it. I'm bold. Because Jesus tells

me to ask. Because that's what he wants to hear.

He wants to hear you say, God, I need you.

He goes, I know. But I want you to say it.

Because everything in the whole universe I planned for you.

And if my people who are called by my name

will humble themselves, God, I am not in control. You are.

I'm not. You're God. I'm not. Will humble themselves and pray, God,

I need your help. I need you. Oh, I need you.

Then we come to the third premise for the promise.

If my people will humble themselves and pray, and number three,

seek my face. Write this down. Third key, seek God,

not a miracle. I seek God, I seek God's face,

not a miracle. It's okay to want a miracle, that's fine.

It's okay to want healing and restoration, but that's not

what you seek. If my people humble themselves, pray, seek

my face, not seek a miracle, not seek a sign,

Not seek healing.

Not seek prosperity. Not seek a thousand other gifts of God.

Stop seeking the gift and just go, God, I want you.

I want you. I wanna know you. And when you

seek God, you get everything else. But God is not

a vending machine. And there are unfortunately many, millions of

Christians today They spend all their time seeking what God

has to give them and nothing in seeking God himself.

If my people will seek my face, seek him, not

merely the blessing. If my people will seek my face, Lord,

what does that mean? It means, Lord, whether I get

the answer that I want or not, I wanna know you.

Whether I get the healing that I want or not,

whether I get the restoration I want or not, whether

I get the answer I want or not, I am

seeking you. And as I come to you, if I

don't get what I think is best for me, I'm

gonna be satisfied with what you think is best for me.

And out of this whole ordeal, coming out of my

pain in the divorce, coming out of my pain in

the loss of a child, coming out of the miscarriage,

coming out of the being laid off or whatever. I'm

seeking you. Not the blessing, not the gift, not the miracle.

I'm seeking you. I wanna know you, God. Proverbs 8, 17.

God says, I love those who love me and those

who seek me. They find me. Hebrews 11, six. God

rewards those who earnestly seek him. Circle the word earnestly.

This is not some casual pastime. It's not like I'm

gonna seek you in my spare moments. After three TV shows,

I'll seek you. After I do my social media, I'll

seek you. Like you're the low priority. No, this is

a serious pursuit. Who earnestly seek. It's the primary focus

of my life. God, I gotta know you. Because you

made me to know you. You know, you don't become

an Olympic athlete in your spare time. You gotta seek it.

You gotta earnestly seek it. Years ago, my brother played golf,

so I played golf because he played it. I hate golf.

It's the only game you can play your entire life

and never get any better at it. Why would I

do that game, huh? People say, you play golf? Well,

I played at it. A big difference. You say, why

did you play at it? Because I wasn't willing to

invest the time. It's real simple. I just wasn't willing

to invest the time. And to be a pro at

anything requires intensity. You wanna be a pro at prayer,

you gotta invest the time. You wanna be a pro

at knowing God, you gotta invest the time. I gotta

earnestly seek him. What does God want from me more

than anything else? What does God want from you? He

just wants you to seek him. God, I really wanna

get to know you. Look up here at the screen.

The Lord, Psalm 114, verse two. The Lord looks down

from heaven on the entire human race and he looks

to see if there's even one with real understanding. Just

one who seeks for God. What is he saying about

that verse? He's saying, you know, the fact is, most

of my children really don't even seek me. It's really

rare to find somebody who's earnest about seeking God. We

want just enough of God to bless us, but not,

you know, to change us. Deuteronomy, the Bible says this

in chapter four. If you seek the Lord, your God,

you'll find him. If you look for him, with all

your heart, that's the key, and with all your soul.

And when you are in distress and these things have

happened to you, you will return to the Lord your

God and you'll obey him for he's a merciful God

and he will not abandon or destroy you. If you're

stuck in a cycle and year after year after year

you feel like I'm not getting any better, I'm just

kinda stuck. I'm in neutral and I wasn't any better

last year, I'm not sure I'm gonna be any better

this next year. Same situation, relationship still stinks and my

habits still are not where I want them to be.

You're stuck in that cycle. It's cause you're not seriously

seeking God. You gotta seek him with all your heart.

Now you know what? If you'll do that, it's kinda

like humility. God loves the humble. but God goes overboard

for people who seek him. He will bless your socks off.

Look at the next verse. Seek first his kingdom, his righteousness,

and all these other things will be given to you

as well. There's almost nothing God won't do for the

woman or the man that are genuinely seeking God first,

almost nothing. Everything else, I'm gonna take care of it.

It's so rare to find somebody who's truly seeking me.

Other people are seeking blessings from me, miracles from me,

signs from me, but these people actually just wanna know me.

If my people will humble themselves and pray and seek

my face, then he gives us the fourth premise for

the promise. And turn from their wicked ways. Now what

in the world does that mean? So I'll heal you,

but you gotta, number four, turn from my wicked ways.

Write this down, turn my attention. Write this down, turn

my attention from the world to the word. I turn

my attention from the world to the word. Now I

need to define two terms here, the word turn and

the word wicked. because I think we've got a lot

of misunderstandings about this. He says the fourth premise for

the promise is turn from their wicked ways. Okay, first

let's start with wicked ways. Wickedness. What do you think

of when I say the word wicked? You might think

of the Broadway play. I wanna be popular. Wicked, what

do you think of? What most people think of when

we say the word wicked, they think of evil, really

bad and evil stuff that other people do. Assassinations, that's evil,

that's wicked. Sexual rape and abuse, that's wicked. Genocide, that's wicked. Extortion,

that's wicked. Murder, torture, that's wicked. And our idea of

wicked is Hitler and the extreme of evil. Let me

give you a little bit different definition of wicked. What

does the Bible say? You might write this down. Definition,

wickedness is forgetting God. Wickedness is just forgetting God. Anytime

I forget God, that's wicked. Because you were made to

be in fellowship with God. He loves you. He wants

you to love him back. He knows you. He wants

you to know him. Wickedness is not all those other things.

It's forgetting God. And when we forget God, we do

all kinds of other stuff. And when a society forgets God,

society does all kinds of other wicked stuff. But it's

really about forgetting God. Look up here on the screen,

Isaiah 17 verse 10. You have forgotten? You've forgotten the

Isaiah 17:10

God who saves you. And you have not remembered that

God is your place of safety. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

What's your place of safety? What has been your place

of safety? God says, I'm your place of safety, but

you've just forgotten that. And some of you, you think

your place of safety is your bank account. And some

of you think it's your boyfriend. And some of you

think it's something else, whatever. But God says, I'm your

place of safety. I'm gonna protect you. You're my child.

You're my son. You're my daughter. And what you've done

is you've forgotten that. I've got a message I've been

holding on. I was gonna do it a couple weeks

ago on prayer and memory. And I studied all through

the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, every verse on forgetting

and remembering. And there are a lot of things God

says I want you to forget. But there are a

lot of things God says I want you to remember.

And one of the things he says, when you've forgotten me,

that's wicked. Okay, now what about turn? Turn from my

forgetting God. Well, the turn, that word there in Romans, Hebrew,

it's the Old Testament, literally means return. It means bring back.

It means repent. It's the word for repent. It says

you don't just turn away from the bad stuff, you

turn to the good stuff. In the Bible, in the

New Testament, it's the Greek word metanoia. Meta means to turn,

and noia is the Greek word for noose, which means

your mind. It means to flip your mind, to change

your mind. Repentance, that's the word, metanoia in the Bible.

Repentance simply means change your mind. I used to think

about God this way, now I think about God that way.

That's repentance. I used to think about, I thought that

was good, now I think this is good. I used

to value that, now I value this. That's repentance. I

used to think God was this, now I think God

is this. I change my mind about life, I change

my mind about success. I change my mind about what matters.

I change my mind about the past, my past. I

change my mind about the future. I change my mind

about love. I change my mind about what matters most.

That is repentance. I am turning my attention. Now most people,

they think of the word repentance, they think of a

negative word. When you say the word repentance, you think

of like a guy on the sidewalk with a street sign.

He's got long scraggly hair and a beard and it

says turn or burn. You're gonna die and fry while

we go to the sky. No, no, that's not repentance.

Repentance is not a negative term. Repentance is the most

positive term in history. When I repented, I turned from

guilt to forgiveness. That was a good deal. When I repented,

I turned from darkness to light. I turned from no

purpose to purpose. I turned from hopeless despair to hope

for eternity. I turned from bitterness to love. It was

the most positive change in my life. If I had

known how positive it is to repent, I would have

done it years earlier. It's not like somebody's trying to

give me cancer. I wish I had known it and

understood it sooner. To turn from darkness to light. From

meaninglessness to meaningfulness. From a life that is shallow to

a life that is significant. That's repentance. It's the most

positive change you can make. To turn away from hell

to heaven. From Satan to God. From no love to

the love of the Father that will never, ever So

when he says turn from their wicked way, he's saying, yeah,

I want you to turn away from that to turn

over here. Change your attention. Change your attention, metanoia. Wrap

it up. Look up here at the screen, Acts 3.19.

The Bible says, repent and turn to God so that

your sins may be wiped out. Anybody like that? I

like that part. And so that times of refreshing may

come from the Lord. I bet you probably need some

times of refreshing in your life. You may need some

times of refreshing in your career. Our nation needs a

time of refreshing. How do we get it? Repent and

turn to God so your sins may be wiped out.

Times of refreshing come from the Lord. Last two verses,

Proverbs 28. If you hide your sins, you're not gonna succeed.

But if you confess them and you reject them, you're

gonna receive mercy. What are you pretending isn't a problem

in your life? What are you pretending isn't a sin?

If anything, we've learned from politicians, and we haven't learned much,

but we have learned that cover up is worse than

the sin. It just makes it worse. It just makes

it worse. If you hide your sins, you will not succeed,

but if you confess and reject them, you're gonna receive mercy. Therefore,

James 5, 16, confess your sins to each other, pray

for each other, so that you may be what? Circle

that word, healed. It all starts with confession. You might

write down there, I need others to help me change.

That's why we have support groups. That's why we have

recovery groups. That's why we have small groups. That's why

we have every kind of possible group you could imagine,

because you need other people to help you change. Confess

your sins to each other, pray for each other, and

you will be healed. If my people, which are called

by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek

my face and turn, repentance, from their evil ways, their

wicked ways, I've stopped forgetting God. Then, three things, I

will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins, and

I will heal their land. Let's bow our heads. Folks,

this isn't rocket science. It's pretty easy to understand. God

just lays it all out. It's just the real issue

is will we do it? Will you take these steps

right now in your mind, in your heart? Would you start,

if my people will humble themselves, would you say, God,

I wanna admit I'm not in control. I've acted like it,

but I'm not. I've tried to run the shots and

call the shots and it just isn't working very well.

And the harder I try to control things, the more

out of control everything gets. And so today I humble

myself and I'm asking you to guide me and bless

me and give me the power to change and relieve

my stress and all of those things that come if

I walk humbly before you. That list of humble actions

doesn't look very easy to do So God, I'm asking

you to help me to be quiet in the face

of criticism, to pray for my enemies, to immediately confess

my sin to you and all those other things. And

you said, Lord, if my people will pray, I'm asking

for help. Thank you for thinking up the idea of prayer.

I don't even have to worry about is this a

good prayer or not. You just said ask anything and

you'll sort it out. I thank you that you don't

put me down for saying stupid prayers. You just want

me to talk to you. Teach me to pray all

the time, all kinds of prayer, asking all that I

need to always be ready, to always pray for all

God's people, to be tenacious. And Lord, I wanna seek you.

If my people will seek my face, forgive me for

the times I have not sought your face. I've just

sought your blessing. You've said that those who seek you

will find you. I want to find you. And in

this next year, I wanna be closer to you than

ever before. Help me to turn my attention away from

the world to the word. And as I do these things,

I ask you to hear my prayer from heaven. I

ask you to forgive my sins. And I ask you

to heal me, my heart, my body, my mind, my relationships,

my fears, my bad habits, my bad attitudes, my bitterness,

heal my anger, heal my impatience, I want to be

like you, Lord. You're humble. And I humbly ask this

because Jesus already paid for it. And I pray it

in his name. Amen.