Resetting Your Life A New Start

Resetting Your Life Context: David settles the kingdom. David makes Solomon his heir to the throne. David collects and begins the work on the Temple. He is not allowed to complete it. Other passages in the OT state that David will not because he is a warrior, a man of bloodshed. Solomon is to complete the Temple. Why would Israel need a reset in its relationship with God at this point? How was the Temple a reset in God’s relationship with Israel?

Resetting Your Life 77 “My father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the Name of the L ORD, the God of Israel. 8 But the L ORD said to my father David, ‘You did well to have it in your heart to build a temple for my Name.9 Nevertheless, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son, your own flesh and blood—he is the one who will build the temple for my Name.’ 10 “The L ORD has kept the promise he made. I have succeeded David my father and now I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the L ORD promised, and I have built the temple for the Name of the L ORD, the God of Israel.11 There I have placed the ark, in which is the covenant of the L ORD that he made with the people of Israel. 2 Chronicles 6:

Resetting Your Life 2020 May your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, this place of which you said you would put your Name there. May you hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. 21 Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.21 2 Chronicles 6:20-21 NIV

Resetting Your Life Why is it important to believe that God hears us as we seek Him? Why is the availability of forgiveness essential to any spiritual reset? Verses launch out into scenarios that would demand a spiritual and lifestyle reset. How are these situations like the ones we face? We are like them, no different, just more modern. We sin with slicker toys. We can sin faster and bigger and involve more people than ever before. My sin, your sin can literally impact the world immediately. Honestly, it always has impacted the world. We just didn’t realize it.

Resetting Your Life 3636 “When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to a land far away or near; 37 and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity and say, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong and acted wickedly’; 38 and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity where they were taken, and pray toward the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you have chosen and toward the temple I have built for your Name; 39 then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their pleas, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you Chronicles 6:36-39 NIV

Resetting Your Life Here is where Solomon touches on the means by which the People of God can reset their spiritual condition, and the spiritual condition of the entire nation. Where do you see Solomon describing a spiritual reset in this passage? What must happen in us for a spiritual rest to take place? Since the Temple is no longer our focal point for worship, how do we apply what Solomon describes?

Resetting Your Life 11 When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the L ORD filled the temple. 2 The priests could not enter the temple of the L ORD because the glory of the L ORD filled it. 3 When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the L ORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the L ORD, saying,23 “He is good; his love endures forever.” 2 Chronicles 7:1-3 NIV

Resetting Your Life God showed up at the invitation and the stating of the covenant. How did God display His pleasure and acceptance? How does He display His pleasure and acceptance of us today? How should we respond?

Resetting Your Life 1111 When Solomon had finished the temple of the L ORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the L ORD and in his own palace, 12 the L ORD appeared to him at night and said:12 “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 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 I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there Chronicles 7:11-16 NIV

Resetting Your Life God spoke to Solomon, personally, a second time. The first was when Solomon asked for wisdom. What does God say is required for a reset? What obligations does God take on Himself toward us? How should this affect the way that we live? The emphasis is on the reset in the hearts of the people – collectively.

Resetting Your Life 1919 “But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. 21 This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the L ORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ 22 People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the L ORD, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’ ” Chronicles 7:19-22 NIV

Resetting Your Life What are the consequences if we do not hit the spiritual reset button? Failure to reset means continuing in malfunction, dysfunction, and frustration which leads to despair and the full consequences from the dysfunction.