WEBVTT

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Man, tonight we're continuing to go through Second Kings chapter 20 and we're going through

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the life of Hezekiah.

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And of course, Hezekiah is one of the greatest kings of all time, greatest king in the history

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of the southern kingdom of Judah.

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There was no one before him or after him that was like him.

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And so he's really lifted up as a great man of God.

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Last week we saw that he kind of had a little bit of a trial and he was really

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pushed to his absolute brink and limit.

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But he ended up making it through that and God blessed him and he ended up prevailing

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over the Assyrians.

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Well, it says in verse number one of chapter 20, in those days was Hezekiah sick unto death.

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And the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, came to him and said unto him, Thus sayeth

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the Lord, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, oh, and by the way, you're

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not going to live, thou shalt die and not live.

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Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed unto the Lord, saying, I beseech thee,

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oh, Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and

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have done that which is good and thy sight and Hezekiah wept sore.

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And of course, God's going to end up answering his prayer and actually giving him 15 more

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years of life.

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So he's sitting here and saying, you know, hey, you're going to die Hezekiah.

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The prophet of God is speaking the word of the Lord.

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And instead of just saying, okay, I'm going to set my house in order.

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He really just doesn't want to die yet.

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He just has more than he wants to do.

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And he ends up begging God and God ends up changing his mind and helping him out with this.

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And so the thing about this is that a lot of people think that prayer is just some kind

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of an exercise or that it doesn't really change things.

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People have this kind of Calvinistic or fatalistic mindset of like, well, whatever

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is the will of God is just going to happen anyway.

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But you know, this is a great example that shows that prayer can actually change something.

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You know, because I mean, you think the prophet is just making this up or lying or just kidding

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when he says, you're sick, you're going to die, you're not going to live.

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No, that was the plan.

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And then when he prays and says, God, remember all the good stuff I've been doing, man,

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give me more time, God hears his prayer.

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And you know what the Bible says?

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You have not because you ask not, right?

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You have not because you ask not.

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You ask and receive not because you ask a miss that you may consume it upon your

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lust.

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And so that goes to show that if we don't pray for something, we could miss out on

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blessings that we could have had if we had prayed.

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But we have not because we ask not.

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That shows that prayer is not just a meaningless exercise.

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I've heard pastors get up and literally say, well, you know, it's going to happen

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anyway.

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But if you pray for it, you're involved.

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What?

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So I can just like pretend.

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And I remember a pastor talking about how you would pray that the hot water would

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turn on and then he would turn the tap on and say, oh, God, just answered my prayer.

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That's stupid because that's just acting like prayer doesn't really actually

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affect a meaningful change.

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The water was going to come on anyway.

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Hey, I'm just getting prayers answered first thing in the morning.

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Just like, please toilet flush.

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Yes.

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Another prayer to answer to Ching.

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That's not what prayer is.

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OK, the whole point of praying and asking for something is to actually get

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something done.

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You know, I'm not just going through some exercise.

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Hail Mary, our Father, which started just chanting.

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No, we're talking to God and we're boldly entering into the throne room of

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grace so that we can find grace to help in time of need so we can get help

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with what we need.

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And so, yeah, there are going to be some eyes when we ask for things

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and God decides not to answer it the way that we wanted him to answer it.

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You know, Paul had that thorn in the flesh and he prayed about it three

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times and God just told him, you know, my grace is sufficient for thee.

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My strength is made perfect in weakness.

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And God told him, I'm not going to remove the thorn in the flesh.

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You're stuck with it.

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So there's certain things that we might not like the fact that God

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sticks us with certain situations and he doesn't fix the situation

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the way we want or when we want.

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But at the end of the day, prayer can actually get things done.

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Otherwise, what is even the point?

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And I do not believe that prayer is a meaningless exercise.

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I believe that you can actually change something.

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And this is a perfect example.

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You're going to die.

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He prays.

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He gets 15 years added to his life.

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That's a pretty good answer to prayer right there.

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Now, I also want to point out how in verse three, you know,

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it talks about he turned his face toward the wall and then it says

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at the end of verse three, Hezekiah wept sore.

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You know, this kind of reminds me of another person who turned

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his face to the wall and wept and that is King Ahab.

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So King Ahab is the bad example where he turns away his face

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to the wall and weeps, but instead of praying to God,

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he's whining to his wife, Jezebel.

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He's not doing things the right way and trying to get help

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from God.

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He's just weeping and not taking it to the Lord the right way.

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And I remember I heard a pastor preach one time and he said,

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you know, anytime you're crying,

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anytime you have tears in your eyes,

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turn that into a prayer.

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Because the Bible will associate like prayer and fasting,

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but it will also associate weeping and praying.

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So here's the thing, don't let those tears go to waste.

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You don't wanna let a good crisis go to waste, you know?

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So if you have the tears already there,

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turn that into a prayer.

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Instead of just crying and whining and feeling sorry,

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turn it into supplication and prayer before God.

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And you know, Jesus Christ himself,

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who obviously is the ideal man who is tempted

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and all points like as we are yet without sin,

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God in the flesh, right?

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Three different times, Jesus wept.

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Now we all know, of course,

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our favorite Bible memory verse, John 11.35,

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but that's not the only mention of Jesus weeping.

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Because that is when Jesus weeps at the grave of Lazarus

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in John 11.35.

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But also there's the part where he weeps over Jerusalem.

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You know, and he looks over Jerusalem

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and he weeps and so forth.

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And then also there's the passage in Hebrews

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that talks about the Lord Jesus Christ.

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And it says, who in the days of his flesh,

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when he had offered up prayers and supplications

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with strong crying and tears, right?

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So Jesus is offering up prayers under the Father

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with strong crying and tears.

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And it says that he was heard by him

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that was able to save him from death

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and that he feared though he were a son,

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yet learned to obedience by the things

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which he suffered and being made perfect.

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He became the author of eternal salvation

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unto all them that obey him,

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called God high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

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It's about Jesus coming as a high priest

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after order of Melchizedek,

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son of God that's clearly the context in Hebrews.

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And it says that he offered up prayers

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and supplications to God with strong crying and tears, right?

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So that's a good way to pray.

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If Jesus prayed that way, strong crying and tears.

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And by the way, when Jesus weeps at the grave of Lazarus,

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he doesn't just weep and that's it.

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What's the next thing he's doing is right after that

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he's praying to God the Father

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and Lazarus is arisen from the dead.

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And so turn those tears into prayers, right?

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When you're upset, when you're sad,

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when you're at a breaking point,

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when you're to the point where you're literally

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physically crying, let that prompt you

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and trigger you to pray and say, oh, I'm crying.

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Here I am crying.

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I promised myself I wouldn't cry.

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Here I am crying.

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Time to pray should be like, oh, I'm crying.

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Let's use this as a prayer time

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because I want to have that strong crying and tears, right?

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I mean, hey, if I was forced to skip meals

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for whatever reason, had no access to food,

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I'd be like, all right, let's call it a fast

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and start praying, you know, let's use this.

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The point is that he's crying and praying

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and God, he actually cares about those tears.

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How do I know that?

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Because the Bible talks about in the book of Psalms

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how all of our tears, God stores them in a bottle, right?

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So God does not just ignore the tears of his people.

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He stores our tears in a bottle.

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And so therefore, you know,

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turn those crying tears into prayers.

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And so Hezekiah, he's weeping, he's praying before God.

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And it says that in verse four, you know,

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Isaiah's leaving, Isaiah's giving him the bad news,

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you're gonna die, he cries, he prays.

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And here's the thing, Isaiah's on his way out the door.

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And look what it says in verse number four,

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it came to pass after Isaiah was gone out

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into the middle court that the word of the Lord

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came to him saying, turn again and tell Hezekiah,

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the captain of my people, thus say at the Lord,

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the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer,

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I have seen thy tears, behold, I will heal thee

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on the third day thou shalt go up

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unto the house of the Lord.

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And I will add unto thy days 15 years,

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and I will deliver thee and this city

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out of the hand of the king of Assyria,

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and I will defend this city for my own sake,

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and for my servant David's sake.

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And Isaiah said, take a lump of figs,

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and they took and laid it on the boil and he recovered.

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So, you know, this is sometimes

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a physical substance will be used,

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even though it's a miraculous healing by God,

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sort of like when Jesus spits on the ground

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and makes mud out of the spittle

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and puts it on the guy's eyes in the Gospel of Mark,

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and then he's healed of his blindness,

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or I believe there's a place where he spits

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and puts it in the guy's ear,

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and maybe that was just something that happened to me

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when I was a kid from my uncle,

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but the point is that, you know,

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sometimes something physical, like the mud,

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or in this case, you know, a lump of figs or something,

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will be used as like a symbol or a picture

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or something of what's going on,

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of the healing salve that's been,

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but it's really a supernatural answer to prayer.

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I wouldn't think that this is just a home remedy

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that's just gonna work for you,

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you know, next time you have an infection

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or something like that, any more so

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than I would think that spitting on the ground

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and putting mud in someone's eye

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is gonna heal them of blindness.

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It's obviously a miraculous thing that took place.

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And so, this is a pretty quick answer to prayer,

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and you know what, some answers to prayer are quick,

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and would to God that all answers to prayer

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were this quick, you know?

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But sometimes it takes longer.

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You remember there's a time when Daniel

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is praying and fasting, and for 21 days,

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he just puts himself on like a bread and water,

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kind of a diet, and he's just really not enjoying,

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and he's afflicting his soul,

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and he's praying and begging God.

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And then the angel of the Lord comes and speaks to him

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and says, you know, I heard your prayer 21 days ago,

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I was sent here in answer to your prayer,

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but I got tied up along the way,

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and you know, the Prince of Persia withstood me,

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and he kind of talks about some of the spiritual battles

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and spiritual warfare that are going on

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that we can't really understand.

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And so sometimes in the Bible answers to prayer

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come years later, sometimes they come 21 days later,

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sometimes they come decades later.

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I mean, you see Isaac and Rebecca praying for a child,

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and she gets pregnant 20 years later.

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Is that an answer to prayer?

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Yeah, how long does it take?

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20 years, okay?

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So we would prefer 20 minutes like this situation,

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but sometimes it's 20 years, sometimes it's 20 minutes,

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but remember to God it's all the same

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because with the Lord a day is like a thousand years

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and a thousand years like a day.

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So a lot of times it's gonna be on his timeline,

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sometimes he will allow us to be stuck

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with a thorn in the flesh because he knows

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that it's good for us, and the apostle Paul,

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he said, hey, I'm stuck with the thorn in the flesh

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so that I don't get exalted above measure,

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so I don't get too prideful,

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so I don't get too big for my britches.

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God has decided that I'm gonna be stuck

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with the thorn in my side

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and that his grace is gonna be sufficient.

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Life's never gonna be perfect.

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There's some things that we end up having to put up with.

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And so I love this story because it's an answer to prayer,

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concrete answer to prayer, strong crying in tears.

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He gets the prayer answered and he's healed.

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Then it says in verse number eight

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and Hezekiah said into Isaiah,

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what shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me

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and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day?

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Now, again, the third day, obviously,

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it's impossible to miss the imagery of Jesus dying

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and being buried and rising again on the third day.

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There's a foreshadowing of that.

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Going up to the house of the Lord on the third day,

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the sign here as well is that

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if God answers your prayer,

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you should be thankful and serve God.

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So basically he's healed and then he's on the third day,

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you're gonna come up out of the bed

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and you're gonna go to church.

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You're gonna go to the house of God.

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It kind of reminds me of Mark chapter one

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when I believe it's Mark chapter one

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where Peter's mother-in-law is sick of the fever

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and she's healed and then it says that she arose

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when he heals her, he touches her,

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the fever leaves her and then it says she arose

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and minister unto them.

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So it's like she arises from the illness

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in order to minister and serve.

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And again, we are saved to serve.

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So we get saved not so that we can sit around and do nothing.

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We're not saved by works.

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There are no works required

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before, during, or after salvation

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in order to get to heaven,

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but God's will is that we do works and that we serve.

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And so when God heals us spiritually by saving us,

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he wants us to get up and serve him.

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And so Peter's mother-in-law is a good example.

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She's healed and then she arises and ministers and serves.

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Hezekiah is gonna be healed so that he can do what?

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So that he can go to the house of God and worship the Lord

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and so that he can continue to lead God's people

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for the next 15 years.

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And why is he gonna lead them?

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Well, it says at the end of verse six,

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I will defend this city for my own sake

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and for my servant David's sake.

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And of course, David also represents Jesus Christ.

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And so the idea here is that at the end of the day,

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our lives exist to bring honor to the Lord

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and to the Lord Jesus Christ and that is why we exist.

14:20.380 --> 14:24.600
And so when we're saved, it's not to sit, it's to serve.

14:25.080 --> 14:26.740
And when God answers our prayers,

14:27.200 --> 14:28.400
we should have gratitude

14:28.400 --> 14:30.300
and be thankful that God answered our prayer.

14:30.380 --> 14:30.900
And that should say,

14:31.180 --> 14:32.880
hey, that just makes me wanna go to church

14:33.280 --> 14:36.220
and serve God more because God is so good to me.

14:37.360 --> 14:41.740
So the Bible says here that Hezekiah asks,

14:41.940 --> 14:43.660
what is the sign that the Lord will heal me?

14:44.500 --> 14:45.700
And verse nine, Isaiah said,

14:45.860 --> 14:47.560
this sign shall thou have of the Lord

14:47.940 --> 14:50.560
that the Lord will do the thing that he has spoken.

14:50.840 --> 14:54.380
Shall the shadow go forward 10 degrees or back 10 degrees?

14:54.980 --> 14:57.980
So this is a sundial, okay?

14:58.660 --> 15:03.380
And the sundial obviously is only,

15:03.620 --> 15:05.200
it has no moving parts or anything,

15:05.280 --> 15:07.460
it's just only impacted by the movement

15:07.460 --> 15:09.120
of the heavenly bodies.

15:09.560 --> 15:11.900
And the thing about that is that our universe

15:12.460 --> 15:15.480
is a clockwork universe in the sense

15:15.480 --> 15:19.060
that everything in the universe on a certain path

15:19.060 --> 15:20.080
or a certain course,

15:20.560 --> 15:22.760
and things are moving at a certain rate

15:22.760 --> 15:25.820
and there are certain forces that are keeping things

15:25.820 --> 15:29.140
in orbit and in their courses and in their places.

15:29.980 --> 15:32.640
And so this is a very precise science.

15:32.860 --> 15:36.880
Now astronomy is like the oldest science that there is, okay?

15:37.640 --> 15:40.580
And it's one of the most well-developed sciences

15:40.580 --> 15:41.480
that there is,

15:41.540 --> 15:45.240
and it's one of the most successful sciences that exists.

15:45.540 --> 15:49.520
And so I actually just as kind of just a layman,

15:50.040 --> 15:52.400
not any super-duper scientist or anything,

15:52.720 --> 15:54.740
I have software on my computer

15:55.200 --> 15:57.280
where I can look at the night sky

15:57.780 --> 16:01.020
in any part of the world, any year.

16:01.520 --> 16:05.580
So I could go back to July 24th, 1981,

16:06.280 --> 16:08.020
and see exactly what the sky looked like

16:08.020 --> 16:09.220
on the day that I was born.

16:09.320 --> 16:11.540
And it is so incredibly accurate.

16:11.680 --> 16:14.180
It's more accurate than your eye can even see,

16:14.240 --> 16:15.860
like whatever it's off by,

16:16.000 --> 16:17.280
your eye wouldn't be able to detect anyway.

16:17.900 --> 16:20.500
And you can literally roll this back to the time of Christ.

16:21.160 --> 16:23.380
You could roll this back thousands of years

16:23.970 --> 16:26.380
and you're basically just extrapolating backwards

16:26.380 --> 16:28.020
from the way things are moving

16:28.020 --> 16:29.260
and the forces that are at work.

16:29.500 --> 16:30.940
And then what happens is you could take

16:30.940 --> 16:32.780
these ancient astronomical records

16:32.780 --> 16:37.460
from Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia,

16:37.680 --> 16:38.560
all these different places,

16:39.120 --> 16:41.220
and the Arabs and the Chinese

16:41.220 --> 16:43.140
and all these people that have done astronomy.

16:43.460 --> 16:45.060
And you can compare notes

16:45.910 --> 16:49.720
and see where their observations line up

16:49.720 --> 16:51.160
with the computer simulations.

16:51.160 --> 16:53.380
And it's pretty amazing how that works.

16:54.420 --> 17:00.040
And so everything is moving in just an inexorable movement.

17:00.260 --> 17:04.860
And so making the shadow move on the sundial

17:04.860 --> 17:07.080
is obviously an extreme miracle,

17:07.360 --> 17:11.020
similar to when Joshua made the sun stand still

17:11.020 --> 17:12.560
in Joshua chapter 10.

17:12.880 --> 17:14.140
So this is a major mirror.

17:14.260 --> 17:15.380
This is kind of the same deal

17:15.700 --> 17:17.680
in order to make the shadow go backwards.

17:18.200 --> 17:19.600
And in fact, you can even use

17:19.600 --> 17:21.880
these type of astronomical observations

17:22.280 --> 17:24.080
to figure out when events in the Bible,

17:24.200 --> 17:25.460
like I was just reading a book recently

17:25.460 --> 17:27.880
and I was talking about how they know

17:27.880 --> 17:30.060
that the fall of Jerusalem

17:30.060 --> 17:32.040
and the destruction of the first temple

17:32.040 --> 17:33.940
was in 586 BC.

17:34.480 --> 17:36.140
And it's because they can cross reference

17:36.140 --> 17:38.940
with the astronomy and the astronomical records

17:38.940 --> 17:39.720
and all this stuff.

17:40.040 --> 17:42.580
So thankfully people in the ancient world

17:42.580 --> 17:43.760
were super into astronomy.

17:44.040 --> 17:45.400
So we have all this data

17:45.780 --> 17:46.940
and it's really interesting.

17:46.940 --> 17:49.840
And you can tell like when was the birth of Christ,

17:50.340 --> 17:51.540
when Christ was crucified,

17:51.980 --> 17:55.640
which Christ crucified in AD 30 on a Thursday,

17:55.960 --> 17:58.980
not Friday, sorry Catholics, but not sorry.

18:00.400 --> 18:02.560
Oh, by the way, the Catholics were raging

18:02.560 --> 18:04.180
against Pastor Shelley this week

18:04.180 --> 18:07.700
because Pastor Shelley smashed an idol, right?

18:08.140 --> 18:09.620
So he had like a Mary statue

18:09.620 --> 18:11.080
and he had a kid come up and smash it.

18:11.340 --> 18:14.560
And so just millions of views went mega viral.

18:14.560 --> 18:16.500
Everybody's losing their minds

18:16.500 --> 18:20.980
about a Baptist pastor in church smashing an idol.

18:21.280 --> 18:22.580
And then you know what happened yesterday

18:22.580 --> 18:26.740
or today, an idol smashed a Catholic.

18:27.320 --> 18:29.860
So basically like, so in the Baptist church,

18:30.120 --> 18:31.640
the pastor smashes the idol.

18:31.920 --> 18:34.400
In the Catholic church, the idol smashes the pastor.

18:34.940 --> 18:36.460
So the pastor is literally up there

18:36.460 --> 18:39.020
doing his little hocus pocus mumbo jumbo

18:39.480 --> 18:42.080
and literally the Jesus idol,

18:42.820 --> 18:45.860
the graven image of some random long haired hippie

18:45.860 --> 18:47.880
from the Middle Ages just falls

18:47.880 --> 18:49.900
and just smashed them on the head and kills them.

18:50.500 --> 18:52.640
You know, so it's basically instead of

18:52.640 --> 18:56.380
pastor smashing idol, it's idol smashing pastor.

18:56.520 --> 18:57.980
That's the difference between being a Baptist

18:57.980 --> 18:59.520
and being a Catholic, okay?

18:59.960 --> 19:02.120
I'd rather be on the side of the hammer

19:02.120 --> 19:04.400
with the handle doing the will of God.

19:04.660 --> 19:07.640
God's the one that says break down these idols,

19:07.820 --> 19:11.000
break down these images, cast down the idolatry.

19:11.000 --> 19:13.800
So I'd rather be doing that than propping up the idol

19:13.800 --> 19:15.880
so that it can pull a day gone on me

19:15.880 --> 19:17.280
and fall on its face.

19:18.580 --> 19:20.240
That had nothing to do with the sermon,

19:20.400 --> 19:24.580
but just wanted to cover a little news break.

19:24.840 --> 19:27.420
That was a, you know, we interrupt this sermon

19:27.420 --> 19:30.100
to bring a bulletin from our news sources.

19:31.420 --> 19:35.260
So this is a pretty amazing miracle,

19:35.580 --> 19:36.780
you know, in order to do this.

19:37.120 --> 19:38.680
Now it's, what's funny is that

19:39.100 --> 19:41.360
Hezekiah says, well, making it go forward 10 degrees

19:41.360 --> 19:42.240
isn't a big deal.

19:42.880 --> 19:45.480
Now you'd think that it would be just as a big of a deal

19:45.480 --> 19:48.020
to go either direction, but I can kind of see

19:48.020 --> 19:49.300
where he's coming from a little bit

19:49.300 --> 19:52.540
because the idea could be that you could just kind of

19:52.540 --> 19:54.860
space out, you could space out for a second

19:55.440 --> 19:57.140
and then kind of like, oh look,

19:57.340 --> 19:59.880
it's 10 degrees have gone by in the time.

20:00.100 --> 20:01.360
Whereas like going backwards,

20:02.220 --> 20:03.800
there's no way to explain that,

20:04.060 --> 20:05.840
you know, the time going backwards.

20:05.840 --> 20:08.820
And so it says here, verse 10,

20:08.940 --> 20:10.620
and Hezekiah answered, it's a light thing

20:10.620 --> 20:12.460
for the shadow to go down 10 degrees.

20:12.840 --> 20:15.440
Nay, but let the shadow return backward 10 degrees.

20:15.540 --> 20:16.520
So he's a smart guy.

20:17.000 --> 20:18.240
He knows that going backwards

20:18.240 --> 20:20.100
is the more definitive miracle.

20:21.060 --> 20:23.280
And so Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord

20:23.280 --> 20:25.360
and he brought the shadow 10 degrees backward

20:25.740 --> 20:28.760
by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.

20:29.300 --> 20:31.980
Nothing's in the Bible that's incidental,

20:32.080 --> 20:32.820
coincidental, or accidental.

20:33.520 --> 20:35.200
It's the sundial of Ahaz.

20:35.200 --> 20:38.040
Now if you remember Ahaz, his father, there's a bad king.

20:38.540 --> 20:41.860
He's dead now, but apparently he had built this sundial

20:41.860 --> 20:44.240
where there's another passage in Isaiah

20:44.900 --> 20:48.400
where Ahaz is asked by the prophet of God

20:48.400 --> 20:50.960
to demand whatever sign he wants.

20:51.080 --> 20:54.480
He tells Ahaz, hey, ask whatever sign you want.

20:54.780 --> 20:57.940
And he basically says like, oh, I don't wanna ask for a sign

20:57.940 --> 21:00.140
because I don't wanna tempt the Lord my God.

21:00.980 --> 21:04.480
And then he's rebuked for his unwillingness

21:04.480 --> 21:07.400
to put God to the test and ask God for a sign.

21:08.080 --> 21:11.180
So it's like Ahaz failed to ask God for a sign

21:11.180 --> 21:13.580
and then we have Hezekiah saying, all right,

21:13.700 --> 21:15.480
give me the hardest sign, make it go backwards.

21:15.760 --> 21:17.220
And it's just kind of ironic

21:17.220 --> 21:19.960
that it's in the sundial of Ahaz,

21:20.240 --> 21:22.140
the guy who failed to ask for a sign.

21:22.580 --> 21:25.440
And again, obviously we don't wanna tempt the Lord,

21:25.740 --> 21:28.040
but Ahaz is confused because guess what,

21:28.240 --> 21:32.180
unsaved people or super backslidden carnal Christians,

21:32.580 --> 21:34.400
they don't end up understanding the Bible.

21:34.780 --> 21:38.760
So we don't need unsaved people to lecture us

21:38.760 --> 21:39.980
about what the Bible means.

21:40.600 --> 21:43.100
Atheists love to tell us what it means to be a Christian

21:43.100 --> 21:45.300
and how we could be more Christ-like.

21:45.600 --> 21:46.660
And they don't even believe in Christ,

21:46.780 --> 21:47.620
they don't even believe in the Bible,

21:47.660 --> 21:49.780
but they wanna interpret the Bible for you.

21:50.860 --> 21:53.720
And what's interesting is that they will sometimes

21:53.720 --> 21:56.220
misunderstand what it means to tempt the Lord.

21:57.120 --> 22:00.200
Tempting the Lord is different than asking God

22:00.200 --> 22:02.400
to do something big and believing that He's gonna do it.

22:03.000 --> 22:04.480
That's not tempting the Lord.

22:04.900 --> 22:07.820
When Jesus says, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,

22:08.280 --> 22:10.620
it's when He's being asked by Satan

22:10.620 --> 22:12.520
to just throw himself off a cliff

22:13.240 --> 22:15.820
just to see if God's really telling the truth

22:15.820 --> 22:17.160
when He says He's gonna protect him.

22:18.040 --> 22:19.280
Obviously that's stupid.

22:19.660 --> 22:20.800
If I just said, all right,

22:21.120 --> 22:23.000
I'm gonna test out God's protection,

22:23.380 --> 22:24.860
I gotta test out my guardian angel,

22:25.160 --> 22:27.020
so I'm just gonna go run in front of a train

22:27.500 --> 22:29.880
and just see if my guardian angel helps me out.

22:30.360 --> 22:32.040
I mean, that would be wrong.

22:32.740 --> 22:33.560
That's tempting the Lord.

22:33.840 --> 22:36.740
But you know what, doesn't the Bible say, prove me now?

22:38.120 --> 22:39.580
Right, doesn't the Bible say

22:39.580 --> 22:42.960
that we should want to see big things from God?

22:43.100 --> 22:45.700
I mean, in Malachi chapter three,

22:45.880 --> 22:48.080
He talks about giving the tithe unto the Lord,

22:48.220 --> 22:49.800
bringing the tithes into the storehouse,

22:50.000 --> 22:51.700
and He says, prove me now,

22:52.060 --> 22:54.360
hear with and see if I'll not pour you out a blessing.

22:54.980 --> 22:56.340
You know, that's so great

22:56.340 --> 22:57.700
that you want Him to be able to receive it.

22:58.220 --> 22:59.520
And so here's the deal.

22:59.780 --> 23:01.780
I think a good way to illustrate the difference

23:01.780 --> 23:06.220
is that you got Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

23:07.040 --> 23:08.700
believing that God's gonna deliver them

23:08.700 --> 23:09.540
from the fiery furnace,

23:09.820 --> 23:11.560
but saying, you know what, even if He doesn't,

23:12.240 --> 23:14.320
I'm still not gonna bow down to the golden image.

23:15.000 --> 23:17.520
So I think that if you said this,

23:17.760 --> 23:21.340
if you said, well, God needs to perform X, Y, and Z,

23:21.460 --> 23:24.240
the sign, X, Y, and Z, the answer to prayer,

23:24.240 --> 23:26.040
or I'm not gonna believe in Him,

23:27.200 --> 23:29.560
do you see how that would be tempting the Lord?

23:29.820 --> 23:32.420
Saying like, well, I'm not gonna believe the Bible

23:32.420 --> 23:34.140
unless God does this for me,

23:34.180 --> 23:35.980
or I'm not gonna go to church anymore,

23:36.360 --> 23:38.140
I'm not gonna be a Christian anymore.

23:38.580 --> 23:39.700
You know, that's bogus.

23:39.940 --> 23:42.400
But if you sit there and say, you know what,

23:42.900 --> 23:44.940
I am gonna go to church no matter what,

23:45.120 --> 23:46.840
I'm gonna believe the Bible no matter what,

23:47.200 --> 23:48.720
I'm saved no matter what,

23:49.120 --> 23:52.260
though He slay me, yet will I trust Him?

23:52.940 --> 23:54.160
That's always the attitude.

23:55.160 --> 23:57.460
But then if you turn around and say, okay,

23:58.040 --> 23:59.540
where's the Lord God of Elijah?

24:00.060 --> 24:01.880
And smite the waters with the mantle

24:01.880 --> 24:04.140
and say, I wanna see God do something for me here.

24:04.220 --> 24:05.160
Where's the Lord God of Elijah?

24:05.420 --> 24:07.160
He's not saying if God doesn't do it,

24:07.160 --> 24:08.680
I'm gonna stop being a Christian.

24:09.500 --> 24:10.980
I'm not gonna believe in Him.

24:11.380 --> 24:14.580
He's just asking God to do something big,

24:14.860 --> 24:16.560
demanding a sign from God.

24:17.000 --> 24:19.980
The difference is, are you demanding a sign

24:19.980 --> 24:21.920
or else you're gonna reject the word of God?

24:22.680 --> 24:23.420
That's wrong.

24:24.860 --> 24:27.560
Throwing yourself off a cliff would be something

24:27.560 --> 24:29.980
that would be a stupid, foolish, sinful thing to do.

24:31.040 --> 24:34.240
So we can't expect God to sit there

24:34.240 --> 24:35.980
and honor a sinful decision.

24:36.900 --> 24:39.520
Throwing yourself in front of a train would be wrong.

24:40.480 --> 24:40.500
Right?

24:40.820 --> 24:43.960
It would not, you're not being a good steward

24:43.960 --> 24:46.360
of your body being the temple of the Holy Ghost.

24:47.180 --> 24:49.120
I mean, we don't even want you smoking cigarettes,

24:49.120 --> 24:51.040
let alone throwing yourself in front of a train

24:51.040 --> 24:52.340
or jumping off a building.

24:53.140 --> 24:53.540
Right?

24:53.640 --> 24:55.520
We're not supposed to harm the temple of God.

24:56.280 --> 24:58.540
And so it's like, oh, I'm gonna sin

24:58.540 --> 25:00.800
and God has to come through for me while I'm sinning.

25:01.180 --> 25:01.900
That's wrong.

25:02.260 --> 25:05.440
Saying, oh, well, I'm only gonna believe if I see a sign.

25:05.620 --> 25:07.540
Well, the evil and adulterous generation says

25:07.540 --> 25:09.380
they're only gonna believe the Bible if they see a sign.

25:09.700 --> 25:11.120
They're only gonna believe in Jesus if they see a sign.

25:11.340 --> 25:12.820
We're supposed to believe in Jesus anyway,

25:13.260 --> 25:14.220
believe the Bible anyway.

25:14.640 --> 25:15.120
But you know what?

25:15.280 --> 25:17.240
Asking God for a sign is not wrong.

25:17.240 --> 25:21.560
And in fact, we should want God to do big things

25:21.560 --> 25:23.160
and God to answer prayers.

25:23.440 --> 25:25.720
And we should step out in faith and stuff like that.

25:25.780 --> 25:27.880
Obviously, that's a whole sermon of itself.

25:28.020 --> 25:29.020
We could go all over the Bible

25:29.020 --> 25:30.540
and just kind of talk about that subject.

25:30.880 --> 25:32.680
But the main thing I wanna drive in here

25:32.680 --> 25:35.720
is that Hezekiah is the kind of a guy

25:35.720 --> 25:38.300
who wants to see God do something big

25:38.300 --> 25:39.440
and he wants to do something,

25:40.340 --> 25:42.020
he wants to see God do something amazing.

25:42.920 --> 25:48.380
And the Bible says that God is capable of moving mountains.

25:49.140 --> 25:52.080
And so we should actually have the faith

25:52.080 --> 25:53.800
that God can do something big.

25:54.400 --> 25:56.700
And look, asking God to do something,

25:57.540 --> 25:59.300
unfortunately, he's not always gonna do it.

25:59.900 --> 26:02.440
And even Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego understood that

26:02.440 --> 26:06.120
when they said, we believe that God is going to deliver us

26:06.120 --> 26:06.920
from the fiery furnace.

26:07.680 --> 26:10.660
But if not, we're still not gonna sin.

26:11.360 --> 26:13.760
They're not saying he has to do it

26:13.760 --> 26:14.940
or we'll stop serving God.

26:15.200 --> 26:19.060
They're saying we're demanding that he do it,

26:19.120 --> 26:20.380
we believe he's gonna do it,

26:20.620 --> 26:21.740
but even if he doesn't,

26:21.940 --> 26:23.680
we're still not gonna worship idols.

26:25.260 --> 26:28.100
So I hope you can see some of the differences there

26:28.100 --> 26:29.480
between those things.

26:30.080 --> 26:31.640
Now let's go back to the passage here.

26:31.720 --> 26:33.040
It says in verse 12, at that time,

26:33.140 --> 26:35.460
Baradak Baladan, the son of Baladan,

26:35.740 --> 26:38.220
king of Babylon, sent letters and a present

26:38.220 --> 26:41.240
unto Hezekiah for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

26:41.780 --> 26:44.020
And Hezekiah hearkened unto them and showed them

26:44.020 --> 26:45.820
all the house of his precious things,

26:46.420 --> 26:48.540
the silver and the gold and the spices

26:48.540 --> 26:51.620
and the precious ointment and all the house of his armor

26:51.620 --> 26:53.460
and all that was found in his treasures.

26:53.520 --> 26:55.060
There was nothing in his house,

26:55.060 --> 26:58.940
nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not.

26:59.120 --> 27:01.480
So the idea here is that the Babylonians

27:01.480 --> 27:05.960
send an ambassage to Hezekiah just to give him a present.

27:06.340 --> 27:07.680
Hey, we heard you were sick.

27:08.060 --> 27:09.240
We're trying to be friendly here.

27:10.460 --> 27:13.620
And at this point, Babylon is not really

27:13.620 --> 27:16.380
on Hezekiah's radar because he's more worried

27:16.380 --> 27:17.460
about the king of Assyria.

27:17.600 --> 27:19.040
The Assyrians are the bad guys.

27:19.680 --> 27:21.520
He doesn't see the Babylonians as a threat,

27:21.600 --> 27:23.360
especially when they come up bringing a gift.

27:23.960 --> 27:26.060
I mean, if somebody shows up being friendly,

27:26.180 --> 27:28.460
hey, we heard you were sick, here's a gift.

27:28.960 --> 27:30.040
We don't wanna be cynical.

27:31.360 --> 27:33.300
You know, what are you really here for?

27:34.700 --> 27:36.860
So he's just kind of like, okay, whatever.

27:37.310 --> 27:38.800
But the mistake that he makes though

27:38.800 --> 27:40.540
is just being a little bit too naive

27:41.030 --> 27:42.400
and a little bit too trusting.

27:42.720 --> 27:44.740
So he ends up just kind of showing them everything.

27:45.360 --> 27:47.100
He just takes them on the grand tour

27:47.730 --> 27:49.420
and he's just showing them all the money

27:49.420 --> 27:50.980
and the gold and the silver.

27:51.340 --> 27:53.720
And the problem is that these guys are gonna go home

27:54.180 --> 27:58.860
and tell their superiors, wow, there is a lot of wealth

27:58.860 --> 28:01.780
in Jerusalem and in the house of God in particular.

28:02.220 --> 28:04.000
And ultimately the Babylonians are gonna destroy

28:04.000 --> 28:05.500
the house of God and take all that money.

28:06.020 --> 28:08.580
And this is when they're first finding out about it

28:08.580 --> 28:10.720
as far as just the level of wealth involved.

28:11.320 --> 28:13.160
And so it says in verse 14,

28:13.580 --> 28:15.340
then came Isaiah the prophet unto Hezekiah

28:15.340 --> 28:17.620
and said unto him, what said these men?

28:18.020 --> 28:19.680
And from whence came they unto thee?

28:19.840 --> 28:22.380
And Hezekiah said, they are come from a far country

28:22.380 --> 28:23.280
even from Babylon.

28:23.860 --> 28:25.980
And he said, what have they seen in my house?

28:26.220 --> 28:28.340
And Hezekiah answered, all the things

28:28.340 --> 28:29.720
that are in my house have they seen?

28:30.000 --> 28:31.560
There is nothing among my treasures

28:31.560 --> 28:32.700
that I have not showed them.

28:32.940 --> 28:34.400
And see, you know, this is too much.

28:34.400 --> 28:35.460
He's showing them too much.

28:36.460 --> 28:39.080
And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord.

28:39.500 --> 28:42.660
Behold the days come that all that is in thy father's house

28:42.660 --> 28:44.940
and that which thy fathers have laid up in store

28:44.940 --> 28:47.120
unto this day shall be carried into Babylon.

28:47.820 --> 28:49.800
Nothing shall be left sayeth the Lord

28:49.800 --> 28:53.220
and of thy sons that thou shalt, excuse me,

28:53.360 --> 28:56.100
that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget,

28:56.500 --> 28:58.200
they shall take away and they shall be eunuchs

28:58.200 --> 29:00.260
in the palace of the king of Babylon.

29:00.500 --> 29:02.820
So he's getting this bad news here

29:02.820 --> 29:05.420
that some day these people are gonna come back

29:05.420 --> 29:06.340
and they're gonna take everything.

29:07.760 --> 29:09.840
So what can we learn from this?

29:10.020 --> 29:12.700
I don't think that the Bible is teaching us

29:12.700 --> 29:16.640
to just be cynical and to just suspect everybody's motives

29:16.640 --> 29:19.260
and to just think everybody's out to get us

29:19.260 --> 29:21.140
and when somebody comes bringing us a present

29:21.140 --> 29:23.780
we should just assume that they have some ulterior motive.

29:24.040 --> 29:25.560
I don't think that's what the Bible's trying to teach here.

29:25.820 --> 29:27.420
I think that the idea here is though

29:27.420 --> 29:30.480
that Hezekiah is going overboard

29:30.480 --> 29:35.840
in showing Him just every single thing that He owns

29:35.840 --> 29:37.060
and giving them this tour

29:37.840 --> 29:39.720
and you have to stop and think about a couple of things.

29:39.780 --> 29:42.260
Number one, what is Hezekiah's motive

29:42.820 --> 29:44.120
for showing Him all this stuff?

29:44.300 --> 29:46.820
I mean, it seems like He's trying to impress them.

29:46.960 --> 29:49.180
I mean, if somebody comes over to my house

29:49.180 --> 29:50.540
I'm not just like, all right,

29:50.580 --> 29:53.960
let's look at all my treasures and let's pull out

29:53.960 --> 29:55.880
the big statement and let's pull out whatever.

29:55.980 --> 29:57.960
Not that there's anything impressive there,

29:57.960 --> 30:03.380
but the point is that why does He choose to show them

30:03.980 --> 30:07.320
all the gold, all the silver, all the treasure

30:07.320 --> 30:08.960
and to really emphasize that

30:08.960 --> 30:11.380
it seems like He wants to impress them.

30:12.200 --> 30:15.020
And again, I don't believe that Hezekiah is a bad guy at all

30:15.800 --> 30:19.820
but I think that every human has faults and flaws.

30:20.020 --> 30:20.760
None of us is perfect.

30:20.860 --> 30:22.980
Even a great guy like Hezekiah is not necessarily perfect.

30:23.660 --> 30:26.260
And so I think that He got a little carried away here

30:26.840 --> 30:31.040
showing off His wealth and it ended up causing harm

30:31.040 --> 30:32.880
and the prophet comes and kind of tells them,

30:32.900 --> 30:33.980
hey, you shouldn't have done that

30:34.520 --> 30:36.260
because those people are now we're gonna come back

30:36.260 --> 30:37.300
and wanna take all that stuff.

30:37.720 --> 30:39.160
So here's just some good wisdom.

30:39.760 --> 30:40.480
Don't brag.

30:41.180 --> 30:42.280
Well, how about we just stop there?

30:42.400 --> 30:43.400
Don't brag, okay?

30:43.900 --> 30:46.020
But we could go further and just say, you know what?

30:46.120 --> 30:48.760
Don't brag about your wealth

30:48.760 --> 30:50.460
and have to show off your wealth

30:50.460 --> 30:51.960
because all you're really doing

30:51.960 --> 30:53.480
when you brag and show off wealth

30:53.480 --> 30:54.640
is you're making yourself a target.

30:56.380 --> 30:57.160
Think about it.

30:57.160 --> 30:58.080
You're making yourself a target.

30:58.600 --> 31:00.900
And so there's something that I learned about in school

31:00.900 --> 31:03.800
when I was a kid called conspicuous consumption.

31:04.080 --> 31:06.620
Who's ever heard this term conspicuous consumption?

31:07.140 --> 31:08.020
All right, very few people.

31:08.520 --> 31:10.280
Okay, it's about, well, it's about 15 people.

31:10.720 --> 31:12.440
So basically when I was a kid,

31:12.460 --> 31:13.380
we learned about this in school

31:13.380 --> 31:15.400
and it's the idea of spending money

31:16.160 --> 31:18.400
just so that people see that you have money.

31:18.480 --> 31:21.700
So this is like buying a really expensive outfit

31:21.700 --> 31:22.680
and some of these outfits,

31:22.840 --> 31:24.700
it's not that the outfit is necessarily better

31:24.700 --> 31:25.540
than another outfit.

31:25.540 --> 31:28.040
It's that everybody knows how expensive it is.

31:28.580 --> 31:30.240
You know, it's a certain watch.

31:30.420 --> 31:32.860
It's not that the watch really does much more

31:32.860 --> 31:33.760
than this other watch,

31:33.960 --> 31:35.100
but it's like everybody knows

31:35.100 --> 31:36.800
this is a really expensive watch.

31:37.080 --> 31:42.020
This is of course 10 generations ago, eye watch.

31:42.740 --> 31:45.960
But the point is that people will have

31:45.960 --> 31:47.860
sometimes a really fancy car,

31:48.280 --> 31:50.540
not necessarily because it's even the car

31:50.540 --> 31:52.540
that they want or the features that they want.

31:52.940 --> 31:55.320
It's more like it's a car to get people's attention.

31:56.100 --> 31:57.320
I can drive this vehicle

31:57.720 --> 31:59.160
and people can take one look at it

31:59.160 --> 32:00.980
and see like I've got money.

32:01.340 --> 32:04.020
Look at the purse, or as a man,

32:04.360 --> 32:07.160
look at the exotic cowboy boots

32:07.660 --> 32:10.760
made from the lizard skin, elephant skin,

32:11.660 --> 32:13.560
spotted owl skin or whatever.

32:14.840 --> 32:17.360
And then it's kind of like fancy belts

32:17.360 --> 32:19.980
and belt buckles and fancy rings

32:19.980 --> 32:21.980
and jewelry and the women

32:21.980 --> 32:24.980
with the super expensive diamonds

32:24.980 --> 32:27.540
and pearls and all these different things.

32:28.060 --> 32:29.860
And human beings have been doing this

32:29.860 --> 32:30.720
throughout history, right?

32:31.040 --> 32:33.040
Just conspicuously consuming

32:33.700 --> 32:34.740
in order to get attention.

32:35.400 --> 32:37.940
Obviously, this is not biblical humility.

32:38.480 --> 32:41.620
It's not modest, but also you're making yourself a target.

32:42.700 --> 32:45.920
You know, when you just drive a super fancy car,

32:46.380 --> 32:48.100
wear super fancy clothes,

32:48.680 --> 32:49.680
you're making yourself a target.

32:50.020 --> 32:52.080
Now look, sometimes you need nice things.

32:52.260 --> 32:52.880
Now here's the thing,

32:53.260 --> 32:57.580
like we drove the Ford Transit Van for a long time

32:58.060 --> 32:59.540
and I'm not exaggerating.

32:59.780 --> 33:01.200
You're not even gonna believe me when I tell you this,

33:01.240 --> 33:01.700
but it's true.

33:02.280 --> 33:04.540
We had the full warranty, thank God.

33:05.420 --> 33:08.180
And that thing, I don't know what year was that,

33:08.260 --> 33:12.140
like 2024 probably or when it was just in the shop,

33:12.220 --> 33:13.880
literally more than in our driveway.

33:15.080 --> 33:16.680
It was, she said it was every year.

33:16.680 --> 33:18.500
Okay, we had this thing and it was,

33:18.660 --> 33:19.620
this thing was a lemon.

33:20.540 --> 33:23.680
I mean, we just had the worst experience with this thing

33:23.680 --> 33:27.000
where the thing was just constantly in the shop.

33:27.340 --> 33:29.020
Like, and thankfully we had paid

33:29.020 --> 33:31.120
for the extended super duper warranty.

33:31.460 --> 33:33.480
And so they would put us in a rental car

33:33.980 --> 33:36.840
while that van was in the shop.

33:37.080 --> 33:38.900
So I told her, I said having this van

33:38.900 --> 33:40.760
is pretty much just like a subscription service

33:40.760 --> 33:44.580
to rental cars because we just had endless rental vehicles.

33:44.840 --> 33:46.320
And some of you might remember that period

33:46.320 --> 33:47.700
where we're just pulling up to church

33:47.700 --> 33:49.580
in different vehicles like every few weeks

33:49.580 --> 33:51.600
because we're just in a rental constantly

33:51.600 --> 33:53.920
because the thing just keeps breaking down

33:53.920 --> 33:56.560
and having problems and they couldn't fix it or whatever.

33:57.180 --> 33:58.780
And so finally, here's the thing.

33:58.980 --> 34:01.480
We finally broke down and got the Mercedes Sprinter

34:02.040 --> 34:03.900
because we just needed a vehicle

34:03.900 --> 34:05.760
that's not just always breaking down.

34:06.020 --> 34:07.840
And it's like, when you have a big family

34:07.840 --> 34:10.000
and you have that big 15 passenger range,

34:10.040 --> 34:12.500
there's only a few options really to choose from.

34:12.820 --> 34:14.480
And so that's what we ended up doing.

34:14.980 --> 34:17.600
It's not like, oh, hey, we got to have the fancy,

34:17.860 --> 34:19.480
whatever, it's like, bro,

34:19.580 --> 34:21.060
we're just trying to have a vehicle that works.

34:21.980 --> 34:22.660
And you know what?

34:23.100 --> 34:25.560
We thought about doing that with the church fleet

34:26.040 --> 34:27.320
because of the fact that, guess what,

34:27.780 --> 34:30.220
the old, and I'm sorry Ford lovers out there,

34:31.700 --> 34:33.220
we've had some problems with Fords.

34:33.500 --> 34:35.520
Because our two church vans are both Fords,

34:36.100 --> 34:37.100
15 passenger vans.

34:37.380 --> 34:40.580
And unfortunately, our two Ford church vans

34:40.580 --> 34:41.540
break down all the time.

34:41.760 --> 34:43.700
We have all kinds of problems with them.

34:43.700 --> 34:45.320
We're constantly fixing them,

34:45.720 --> 34:47.640
constantly taking them to the shop and fixing them.

34:47.920 --> 34:50.640
But you wanna know why we're not gonna upgrade those

34:51.180 --> 34:54.180
to a Sprinter or something like that.

34:54.560 --> 34:56.640
The Dodge Sprinter, a Mercedes Sprinter, whatever,

34:57.000 --> 34:58.760
is because of the fact that,

34:59.060 --> 35:00.780
we don't wanna necessarily pull up

35:00.780 --> 35:04.700
on a Mexico mission strip in a Mercedes van

35:04.700 --> 35:06.120
because it could send a message.

35:06.360 --> 35:08.080
Like people could get the wrong idea like,

35:08.400 --> 35:10.900
oh man, these people just have all this money

35:10.900 --> 35:11.880
or something like that.

35:11.880 --> 35:13.920
You know, you could send the wrong message.

35:14.700 --> 35:16.720
And so I'm not saying that, look,

35:16.860 --> 35:19.120
sometimes you have to buy a high quality item

35:19.600 --> 35:21.020
to do what you need it to do.

35:21.500 --> 35:23.380
You know, like those of you that are in trades,

35:23.700 --> 35:26.260
sometimes you do have to buy that really expensive drill.

35:26.620 --> 35:28.760
You have to buy that really expensive drill bit.

35:29.060 --> 35:30.200
If you're an electrician,

35:30.360 --> 35:32.080
you're gonna have all the client tools.

35:32.520 --> 35:33.680
You're gonna have all that nice stuff,

35:33.780 --> 35:36.120
but you gotta be real careful with it and watch it

35:36.120 --> 35:38.500
because I've had my tools stolen.

35:38.820 --> 35:40.240
Who here has had tools stolen?

35:40.660 --> 35:41.420
Lots of people.

35:41.560 --> 35:44.000
Look, way more people all over the room

35:44.000 --> 35:45.680
than knew what conspicuous consumption is

35:45.680 --> 35:47.460
had their tools stolen, okay?

35:47.840 --> 35:49.020
Tools get stolen all the time.

35:49.440 --> 35:51.840
But obviously, if this is what you do for a living,

35:52.400 --> 35:54.040
you know, you need the craftsman

35:54.040 --> 35:56.260
or the snap on or climb.

35:57.160 --> 35:58.620
You know, you need the good stuff,

35:59.400 --> 36:00.980
but it makes you a target

36:00.980 --> 36:02.300
and you gotta be careful with that stuff.

36:02.360 --> 36:04.540
I mean, if your garage is all tricked out

36:04.540 --> 36:06.900
with all the best tools, you know,

36:06.960 --> 36:08.860
you might wanna close the garage door

36:09.420 --> 36:10.500
and not just leave it open.

36:10.740 --> 36:11.600
Hey, I want the whole neighborhood

36:12.160 --> 36:14.760
to see all my amazing tools

36:14.760 --> 36:17.140
because you could make yourself a target, right?

36:17.440 --> 36:19.020
You drive a super fancy vehicle.

36:19.400 --> 36:21.200
Guess what, you're making yourself a target.

36:21.560 --> 36:24.860
Sometimes, yeah, you might need to get that nicer brand

36:24.860 --> 36:26.460
in order to get the reliability,

36:27.180 --> 36:28.600
you know, or maybe you're running a German bakery

36:28.600 --> 36:30.620
so you just really wanna have a German vehicle,

36:30.780 --> 36:33.560
you know, to not be uncool with the customers.

36:33.860 --> 36:35.680
But the point is that, you know,

36:35.940 --> 36:38.320
sometimes you might need to have nice things,

36:38.320 --> 36:39.660
but what you don't need to do

36:39.660 --> 36:42.880
is to make a big deal out of it, show it off,

36:42.920 --> 36:45.580
or just buy things just cause they're expensive.

36:46.940 --> 36:49.040
You know, like if I had a choice,

36:49.820 --> 36:52.780
and look, if I had a choice between two vehicles

36:53.220 --> 36:55.780
that were both gonna do the same thing, okay?

36:56.300 --> 36:58.020
They're both gonna be the same quality

36:58.020 --> 36:59.300
and do the same thing.

36:59.660 --> 37:02.020
And one of them makes it seem like,

37:02.440 --> 37:04.400
oh, this is a really fancy expensive vehicle

37:04.400 --> 37:06.420
and one of them seems more like a humble vehicle.

37:06.420 --> 37:08.080
I would take the humble vehicle every time

37:08.600 --> 37:10.100
if they're both gonna do the same thing.

37:10.200 --> 37:11.960
Because why would I wanna make myself a target

37:12.360 --> 37:14.000
and people look at it and think,

37:14.260 --> 37:15.980
like, oh man, this guy's got money.

37:16.240 --> 37:18.300
Now the nice thing is that, you know,

37:18.480 --> 37:19.900
yeah, I might have a nice vehicle

37:19.900 --> 37:21.100
parked in front of my driveway,

37:21.340 --> 37:23.620
but, you know, my other car

37:23.620 --> 37:26.740
is just a messed up humble Kia.

37:27.480 --> 37:29.520
And so that kind of balances it out

37:29.520 --> 37:32.440
and I think that people will probably think twice

37:32.440 --> 37:33.680
about breaking into a house

37:33.680 --> 37:36.640
that has nine, 10 people living in it.

37:37.000 --> 37:38.680
Because if I were a criminal,

37:39.120 --> 37:41.380
I'd probably break into a house with zero people in it,

37:41.960 --> 37:43.120
maybe one or two,

37:43.500 --> 37:45.040
but I don't know if I would want

37:45.040 --> 37:46.720
that many wildcards running around,

37:46.920 --> 37:50.840
just a gun behind every blade of grass, you know?

37:51.740 --> 37:53.420
So at least the whole neighborhood knows,

37:53.880 --> 37:56.440
yeah, my house is full of people.

37:57.480 --> 38:00.660
So watch out, and we're all armed to the teeth,

38:00.860 --> 38:02.300
even Oliver, just kidding.

38:02.680 --> 38:06.320
That was a joke, nobody's armed except my wife and I.

38:06.800 --> 38:08.640
But my wife counts for like 10.

38:09.480 --> 38:12.680
She's like Commando and Chuck Norris

38:12.680 --> 38:14.840
and all that rolled into one.

38:15.240 --> 38:19.800
Okay, so anyway, that was a little bit of a rabbit trail.

38:20.000 --> 38:25.360
But the point is we don't want to show off fancy things.

38:25.580 --> 38:27.380
And by the way, that's just a bad culture anyway.

38:27.980 --> 38:30.660
Hey, look at me, I got a fancier vehicle.

38:30.660 --> 38:32.600
Hey, look at me, I got fancy clothes.

38:32.980 --> 38:35.680
Hey, look at me, you know, I got this fancy watch.

38:35.800 --> 38:38.780
It's like, bro, is that really a Christian attitude, number one?

38:40.340 --> 38:42.980
You know, you don't want to be a braggart,

38:43.380 --> 38:44.340
but here's the thing,

38:44.920 --> 38:46.960
it's also just from a pragmatic perspective,

38:47.160 --> 38:50.000
it's just not smart to make yourself a target.

38:50.360 --> 38:51.340
And that's the thing, by the way,

38:51.600 --> 38:53.120
a lot of these churches throughout history

38:53.120 --> 38:54.420
have made themselves targets

38:55.020 --> 38:57.220
by just having all these palaces

38:57.220 --> 38:59.040
and all these fancy things.

38:59.120 --> 39:00.220
And then they get robbed

39:00.940 --> 39:02.640
because they have all this wealth

39:02.640 --> 39:04.300
and whatever that they're showing off.

39:04.480 --> 39:08.280
I mean, the Muslims are probably burning

39:08.280 --> 39:10.460
some of it down right now in France as we speak

39:10.820 --> 39:12.400
and peeling that stuff off the walls.

39:12.800 --> 39:16.520
But the point is that we don't want to make ourselves

39:16.520 --> 39:20.100
a target and bragging and showing off

39:20.100 --> 39:22.680
and buying expensive things for the sake of buying things.

39:22.760 --> 39:25.360
And like I said, sometimes you need an expensive thing

39:25.360 --> 39:26.940
to do the job that you need it to do.

39:27.400 --> 39:29.800
I'm not saying to never buy an expensive vehicle

39:29.800 --> 39:30.940
because you need the performance

39:31.420 --> 39:33.380
or to buy an expensive truck

39:33.380 --> 39:35.360
because you need it to do what you need it to do

39:35.360 --> 39:36.620
or to buy expensive tools

39:36.620 --> 39:38.960
because you need to drill what you need to drill.

39:39.280 --> 39:41.840
But not just, hey, let me buy this to impress people.

39:42.360 --> 39:44.140
It's a stupid way to live your life

39:44.140 --> 39:46.420
and you're also making yourself a target.

39:46.820 --> 39:48.940
And so it's a bad idea, watch out.

39:49.020 --> 39:50.500
And that's the mistake that Hezekiah made

39:50.500 --> 39:51.560
is kind of showing off.

39:51.880 --> 39:53.040
Anyway, let's move on from that.

39:54.160 --> 39:56.440
Let's look at Hezekiah's reaction to this

39:56.880 --> 39:58.540
because I think that there are two ways

39:58.540 --> 39:59.700
to interpret his reaction.

39:59.780 --> 40:00.660
I think they're both legitimate.

40:01.340 --> 40:02.600
Let's think about his reaction.

40:03.860 --> 40:08.560
It says, your sons that you beget,

40:08.760 --> 40:10.560
I mean they're gonna take away verse 18

40:10.560 --> 40:11.840
and they shall be eunuchs

40:11.840 --> 40:13.520
in the palace of the king of Babylon.

40:13.680 --> 40:15.580
So he says, look, all your money is gonna be taken

40:17.160 --> 40:19.080
someday but this is after he's dead.

40:19.780 --> 40:24.800
And your sons, your offspring are going to be castrated

40:25.420 --> 40:27.660
and they're gonna be eunuchs in Babylon.

40:28.060 --> 40:29.880
And of course we know that people like Daniel,

40:30.080 --> 40:31.220
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

40:31.380 --> 40:33.380
they did get castrated and so forth.

40:33.460 --> 40:35.640
And so did apparently some of Hezekiah's descendants.

40:37.300 --> 40:39.000
Let's look at Hezekiah's reaction.

40:40.000 --> 40:42.040
Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah,

40:42.760 --> 40:44.700
good is the word of the Lord which thou has spoken.

40:45.360 --> 40:47.420
And he said, is it not good

40:47.420 --> 40:49.020
if peace and truth be in my days?

40:49.660 --> 40:51.440
And look, I think there are two ways to interpret this.

40:52.540 --> 40:54.820
I've usually heard it preached the negative way

40:54.820 --> 40:56.440
and I've usually preached it the negative way

40:56.440 --> 40:58.360
and I do think that is legitimate to say like,

40:58.680 --> 41:01.460
hey, Hezekiah should care a little more

41:01.460 --> 41:05.120
about what happens to the people after him.

41:05.360 --> 41:06.500
Because he's just kind of like,

41:06.540 --> 41:09.020
well, if it's after I'm dead, who cares?

41:09.960 --> 41:11.880
On the one hand, he's saying,

41:12.080 --> 41:14.100
hey, there's peace and truth in my days.

41:14.520 --> 41:17.040
So I think that you could legitimately preach this

41:17.040 --> 41:21.800
as, hey, Hezekiah is kind of being the ultimate boomer

41:22.180 --> 41:23.560
in the sense of like,

41:23.920 --> 41:25.240
he's spending all the inheritance

41:25.240 --> 41:26.900
on endless carnival cruises

41:27.420 --> 41:30.520
and just kind of like bilking the Social Security Fund

41:30.960 --> 41:32.560
and saddling the next generation

41:32.560 --> 41:34.600
with $40 trillion of debt or whatever.

41:35.180 --> 41:36.420
And you could look at it as like,

41:36.480 --> 41:39.580
he doesn't really care about the next generation

41:40.100 --> 41:42.080
because he's just like, oh, they're gonna be eunuchs

41:42.080 --> 41:44.420
and they are gonna lose everything

41:44.420 --> 41:48.360
but hey, it's gonna be peace and truth in my days.

41:48.860 --> 41:50.560
So you could look at it that way

41:50.560 --> 41:53.240
and I do think that that's a legitimate way to read this

41:53.240 --> 41:54.640
and you could preach that and say,

41:55.020 --> 41:57.420
hey, a righteous man leaves an inheritance

41:57.420 --> 41:58.660
to his children's children

41:59.320 --> 42:02.440
and we should be thinking about those

42:02.440 --> 42:04.540
who come after us and building the bridge

42:04.540 --> 42:06.940
for the next generation and yadda yadda yadda.

42:07.580 --> 42:09.120
I think that that's legitimate.

42:09.540 --> 42:11.420
But here's another way.

42:12.340 --> 42:14.460
Here's a more positive take on this, okay?

42:14.880 --> 42:16.940
Because I think that there's two ways to look at this

42:16.940 --> 42:18.860
and I think that they're both legitimate, okay?

42:19.640 --> 42:22.140
On the one hand, you could condemn Hezekiah

42:22.140 --> 42:26.600
and say, hey bro, you should actually realize

42:26.600 --> 42:27.560
that you screwed up

42:27.560 --> 42:29.280
and that you're hurting the next generation

42:29.280 --> 42:30.420
with the decisions that you made.

42:31.500 --> 42:33.360
But also let's talk about some of the good things

42:33.360 --> 42:33.940
about his response.

42:34.300 --> 42:35.560
The first thing Hezekiah said is,

42:35.660 --> 42:36.720
good is the word of the Lord.

42:37.320 --> 42:39.220
Now, I think we can all agree with that, amen?

42:39.880 --> 42:42.780
I mean, can we really argue with what God pronounces?

42:43.540 --> 42:44.760
So basically the Bible says,

42:45.020 --> 42:46.020
in everything give thanks

42:46.020 --> 42:47.520
for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus

42:47.520 --> 42:48.140
concerning you.

42:48.520 --> 42:50.560
So if God says, hey, this is how it's gonna be,

42:51.180 --> 42:52.700
whether it's good or bad,

42:53.160 --> 42:55.260
we should have an attitude of just acceptance.

42:56.880 --> 42:58.100
Blessed be the name of the Lord,

42:58.160 --> 43:00.300
the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.

43:00.820 --> 43:02.100
Blessed be the name of the Lord.

43:02.520 --> 43:04.860
So you could look at this as a positive

43:05.250 --> 43:09.620
that Hezekiah at least is accepting of God's will

43:09.620 --> 43:11.360
and God's word and just saying, you know what?

43:12.320 --> 43:14.720
God's word is good, praise the Lord.

43:15.040 --> 43:18.520
Now, it seems like someone is criticizing him at the time.

43:19.400 --> 43:20.900
Now, it doesn't really surprise me

43:20.900 --> 43:22.360
that preachers including myself

43:22.360 --> 43:25.680
have criticized his just total flippancy

43:25.680 --> 43:26.860
about the next generation

43:27.410 --> 43:28.800
because notice what he says here.

43:28.900 --> 43:30.180
It says, good is the word of the Lord,

43:31.320 --> 43:32.260
which thou has spoken

43:32.260 --> 43:34.700
and he said, is it not good?

43:34.940 --> 43:38.020
So it seems like either someone is objecting

43:38.020 --> 43:40.000
or he's anticipating an objection

43:40.740 --> 43:42.480
because he says, hey, good's the word of the Lord.

43:42.540 --> 43:43.980
And he's like, well, isn't it good?

43:45.060 --> 43:47.740
Kind of like, well, somebody's like, bro, why is this good?

43:48.640 --> 43:50.200
Why do you think this is good?

43:50.400 --> 43:52.700
And he's like, well, isn't it good?

43:54.140 --> 43:56.420
Because there's gonna be peace and truth in my days.

43:56.560 --> 43:58.140
So if we wanted to really like

43:58.140 --> 44:01.160
look at a positive view of Hezekiah in this passage,

44:01.160 --> 44:02.460
we could say, you know what,

44:02.660 --> 44:04.400
at least Hezekiah has the serenity

44:04.400 --> 44:06.020
to accept the things that he can't change.

44:06.940 --> 44:08.900
And he's just kind of made peace with it,

44:09.060 --> 44:09.840
good is the word of the Lord.

44:10.240 --> 44:12.360
And here's the thing, you know, the Bible says,

44:12.620 --> 44:13.680
take no thought for the morrow,

44:13.720 --> 44:14.720
for the morrow shall take thought

44:14.720 --> 44:15.840
for the things of itself,

44:16.080 --> 44:18.140
sufficient under the day is the evil thereof.

44:18.940 --> 44:21.000
And so a lot of times, you know,

44:21.420 --> 44:23.700
if you tried to worry about every bad thing

44:23.700 --> 44:24.840
that's gonna happen in the future,

44:25.300 --> 44:27.080
it could be overwhelming and it could be hard

44:27.080 --> 44:28.460
for you to live your Christian life

44:28.460 --> 44:29.420
and just hard to cope.

44:29.920 --> 44:32.560
And so I guess now that I'm a little bit older,

44:33.200 --> 44:35.860
I can see where Hezekiah's coming from a little more

44:35.860 --> 44:38.200
because I'm kind of like, man, you know,

44:38.260 --> 44:40.260
I just have to get through the day

44:40.260 --> 44:42.580
or get through the week or get through the month

44:42.580 --> 44:44.460
or what, you know, I can't sit there

44:44.460 --> 44:47.000
and worry about how decades from now

44:47.000 --> 44:49.140
America is gonna fall or something.

44:49.360 --> 44:50.560
It's like, you know what,

44:50.620 --> 44:52.900
I gotta worry about what's going on right in front of me.

44:53.200 --> 44:55.600
And I think that there's some truth in this too

44:55.600 --> 44:58.680
that sometimes we could get too worried about stuff

44:58.680 --> 45:02.140
that's way out in the future that doesn't really affect us

45:02.140 --> 45:05.860
and get stressed out about problems that aren't really real

45:05.860 --> 45:08.040
as far as for us personally,

45:08.600 --> 45:09.900
because at the end of the day,

45:10.020 --> 45:11.920
like the next generation is gonna have to deal with that.

45:12.840 --> 45:14.200
We got our own problems.

45:14.980 --> 45:16.680
We got our own stuff to deal with.

45:17.140 --> 45:18.660
And so I don't know about you,

45:19.040 --> 45:21.120
but I'm constantly thinking about the verse,

45:21.640 --> 45:22.660
take no thought for tomorrow,

45:22.860 --> 45:23.780
for the tomorrow shall take thought

45:23.780 --> 45:25.840
for the things of itself sufficient under the day

45:25.840 --> 45:26.800
is the evil thereof.

45:27.240 --> 45:27.820
What does it mean?

45:28.100 --> 45:29.400
Sufficient means what?

45:30.600 --> 45:30.940
Enough.

45:31.440 --> 45:34.240
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,

45:34.300 --> 45:38.180
meaning enough evil crap to deal with today

45:38.740 --> 45:40.960
that I don't need to be worried about tomorrow's problems.

45:41.360 --> 45:41.780
You know what I mean?

45:42.040 --> 45:45.040
Like, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

45:45.660 --> 45:47.300
And so I just gotta trust

45:47.760 --> 45:49.560
that God's gonna take care of me tomorrow.

45:50.620 --> 45:52.240
Deal with what's right in front of me

45:52.240 --> 45:53.560
and trust God for tomorrow,

45:53.760 --> 45:54.760
trust God for next week,

45:54.900 --> 45:55.740
trust God for next month.

45:56.380 --> 45:57.100
I don't know about you,

45:57.120 --> 45:59.880
but when I sit around trying to plan out

45:59.880 --> 46:02.140
the next X amount of months or years

46:02.140 --> 46:04.060
and oh, what am I gonna do when this up?

46:04.180 --> 46:04.900
What about when this up?

46:05.420 --> 46:06.960
It can be stressful and overwhelming.

46:08.400 --> 46:10.800
And a lot of times you end up stressing

46:10.800 --> 46:11.800
and worrying about things

46:13.120 --> 46:14.860
that don't even end up happening anyway.

46:16.180 --> 46:18.140
And put yourself in Hezekiah's shoes here

46:18.140 --> 46:19.960
because wasn't Hezekiah earlier told,

46:20.380 --> 46:21.400
you're gonna die?

46:21.880 --> 46:23.820
And then he prayed and he didn't die?

46:24.260 --> 46:25.760
And God gave him 15 more years.

46:26.100 --> 46:27.280
So even if Isaiah's saying,

46:27.360 --> 46:29.000
hey, these people are gonna come steal everything.

46:29.300 --> 46:30.560
And he's just kind of like,

46:30.720 --> 46:32.120
oh, well it's happening after I'm dead.

46:32.220 --> 46:33.220
That's not really my problem.

46:33.800 --> 46:36.280
You know, couldn't the next guy get right with God

46:36.280 --> 46:39.540
and pray and actually not have that happen?

46:39.800 --> 46:44.040
Just like he got a 15 year extra waiting period.

46:44.600 --> 46:47.420
Obviously, his sons that are good

46:47.420 --> 46:49.520
because his grandson Josiah

46:50.280 --> 46:51.980
is gonna end up being a good king.

46:52.530 --> 46:55.020
And nothing bad happens in Josiah's timeline.

46:55.260 --> 46:57.420
It's only when there's a bad king on the throne

46:57.420 --> 46:59.320
that the really bad stuff even happens anyway.

47:00.220 --> 47:00.820
You know?

47:01.180 --> 47:03.460
So it's like, oh, your great grandkids

47:03.460 --> 47:05.000
are gonna have to deal with X, Y, and Z.

47:05.080 --> 47:06.480
It's kind of like, well, that's their problem.

47:06.940 --> 47:09.320
And maybe they can just get right with God

47:09.320 --> 47:11.080
and pray and fix it themselves

47:11.650 --> 47:13.200
because I got my own stuff to deal with.

47:13.720 --> 47:16.700
Now it gets a little different than sabotaging

47:16.700 --> 47:19.040
the next generation by spending all their money

47:19.460 --> 47:22.880
and going into debt, $40 trillion, and ruining.

47:23.140 --> 47:24.340
And look, I'm sorry, and look,

47:24.620 --> 47:26.580
if those of you boomers out there in the congregation,

47:27.160 --> 47:30.560
I love you and you're not the people I'm talking about

47:31.200 --> 47:32.980
because you're sitting in faithful word.

47:33.920 --> 47:35.580
You know, my parents are baby boomers,

47:35.620 --> 47:38.120
but they're not the people that I'm talking about, okay?

47:38.660 --> 47:40.740
I'm talking about that generation in general

47:41.320 --> 47:42.200
ruined our country.

47:43.480 --> 47:46.040
You know, they're kind of the first generation

47:46.040 --> 47:47.980
in history to leave the country worse

47:47.980 --> 47:49.100
than the way that they found it.

47:51.160 --> 47:53.540
Most generations left the country

47:53.540 --> 47:55.000
a little better than they found it,

47:55.280 --> 47:58.220
and the country's been thriving and doing well

47:58.220 --> 47:59.200
for hundreds of years.

47:59.700 --> 48:02.800
And then the boomer generation was super prosperous,

48:03.360 --> 48:05.480
and I'm not just talking about financially, okay?

48:05.600 --> 48:06.460
I'm talking about just,

48:06.880 --> 48:08.520
they had a great spiritual heritage.

48:09.280 --> 48:11.700
They had great things going for them morally.

48:12.280 --> 48:15.220
They're the ones who sold us down the river

48:15.220 --> 48:18.640
on feminism and abortion and sodomites,

48:18.960 --> 48:21.100
and it's just that whole hippie generation

48:21.820 --> 48:25.040
of just free love and just,

48:25.860 --> 48:27.640
they burned it all down spiritually.

48:28.640 --> 48:29.820
You know, they've ruined the churches,

48:30.040 --> 48:34.080
and even today, there are just so many boomer pastors

48:34.080 --> 48:35.760
teaching so much bad doctrine.

48:36.440 --> 48:39.520
I feel like, unfortunately, sad to say,

48:39.620 --> 48:40.340
and I know they're exceptions.

48:40.500 --> 48:42.240
I know they're great pastors in that generation,

48:42.640 --> 48:44.900
but sad to say the independent fundamental Baptist

48:44.900 --> 48:46.320
movement's probably gonna be better off

48:46.320 --> 48:47.220
when that generation's gone.

48:48.080 --> 48:49.820
Because the younger generation

48:50.620 --> 48:53.300
isn't buying into their Zio boomer slop

48:53.700 --> 48:55.460
to use some online terminology.

48:57.320 --> 49:00.040
You know, it's just like that generation right now

49:00.040 --> 49:02.320
that's just rotting their brain every day

49:02.320 --> 49:06.320
on Fox News and MSNBC and just keeps voting in

49:06.320 --> 49:09.700
just the worst trash politicians over and over again.

49:09.700 --> 49:14.900
Just Lindsey Graham and just Mitch McConnell,

49:15.280 --> 49:16.860
even though he died three months ago,

49:17.060 --> 49:18.280
let's just, you know, whatever.

49:19.080 --> 49:23.320
It's just like, they just keep on just promoting

49:23.900 --> 49:29.460
the wrong things, feminism, Zionism, pre-trib,

49:29.700 --> 49:32.180
rapture, just all of this escapist,

49:32.840 --> 49:36.640
just who cares about the next generation garbage?

49:36.640 --> 49:39.200
So, look, I understand that issue

49:40.000 --> 49:42.300
and I do think that you could use this passage

49:42.300 --> 49:44.800
as a great text to preach against that.

49:45.320 --> 49:46.640
And I preached a whole sermon called

49:46.640 --> 49:48.720
The Baby Boomer Generation where I talked about that

49:48.720 --> 49:50.400
and kind of went through the history of that.

49:51.340 --> 49:54.280
But I think that a less cynical take on this

49:54.750 --> 49:55.900
that is also legitimate,

49:55.900 --> 49:57.780
because a lot of Bible stories can be interpreted

49:57.780 --> 49:59.700
in multiple ways and God's trying

49:59.700 --> 50:00.880
to teach us multiple things

50:00.880 --> 50:03.140
and the Bible kind of speaks to you differently

50:03.140 --> 50:05.580
at different times in your life, you know?

50:05.580 --> 50:09.020
And so I think you could also focus on the positive

50:09.460 --> 50:12.000
that at least Hezekiah is accepting,

50:12.800 --> 50:14.880
hey, the Lord gave, the Lord takes away,

50:15.060 --> 50:15.880
blessed to be the name of the Lord,

50:15.960 --> 50:16.760
the word of God's good.

50:17.140 --> 50:20.260
And at least he's coping with life

50:20.260 --> 50:22.680
by dealing with what's right in front of him

50:22.680 --> 50:25.520
instead of stressing about a problem way out in the future.

50:26.180 --> 50:27.840
And look, this is the way life is,

50:27.940 --> 50:30.040
life's not always super simple and clear cut.

50:31.260 --> 50:32.840
Sometimes people's best attribute

50:33.360 --> 50:34.660
can also be a liability.

50:35.420 --> 50:38.120
And sometimes people's bad attributes have a good side.

50:38.260 --> 50:39.800
There's kind of two sides to the coin.

50:40.200 --> 50:42.860
Right, you could say, oh man, this person's so stubborn,

50:43.440 --> 50:44.680
but sometimes that could be good

50:44.680 --> 50:47.160
if they're like stubbornly holding on to the truth

50:47.160 --> 50:48.560
or the right doctrine, right?

50:49.040 --> 50:49.960
You know?

50:50.160 --> 50:51.660
Or oh man, I love this person

50:51.660 --> 50:53.960
because they're just so chill and so easy going.

50:54.380 --> 50:55.740
Well, that's great until you need them

50:55.740 --> 50:57.740
to actually take a stand and they won't

50:57.740 --> 51:00.540
because they're just too chill and too easy going

51:00.540 --> 51:02.460
that they're just like a wet washcloth

51:02.460 --> 51:03.640
and won't take a stand for anything.

51:04.280 --> 51:05.960
So sometimes good attributes

51:06.600 --> 51:08.540
can have a bad side and vice versa.

51:09.160 --> 51:11.680
You know, and so Hezekiah's attitude here

51:11.680 --> 51:14.440
could be viewed in a positive or negative light of,

51:15.000 --> 51:17.000
well, on the one hand, it's good

51:17.000 --> 51:19.340
that he's such a chill guy and just like,

51:19.380 --> 51:21.600
hey, whatever God says is cool, I'm with it.

51:22.320 --> 51:23.780
Hey, today's a good day.

51:23.980 --> 51:25.420
But then on the other side, it's like,

51:25.500 --> 51:29.000
well, we should prepare and care for the next generation.

51:29.400 --> 51:31.140
But honestly, sometimes I do think

51:31.140 --> 51:32.920
that we need to get in Hezekiah mode

51:32.920 --> 51:34.460
if we're at a breaking point.

51:34.700 --> 51:36.660
If you're struggling in life,

51:36.820 --> 51:39.200
switch into Hezekiah mode and just be like,

51:39.280 --> 51:40.480
well, there's peace and truth today.

51:42.180 --> 51:42.380
You know?

51:42.500 --> 51:44.080
I mean, sometimes you just need to go outside

51:44.560 --> 51:46.220
and just look at the birds chirping

51:46.660 --> 51:49.440
and look up at the sky, at the clouds and everything

51:49.440 --> 51:50.680
and just realize, you know what?

51:50.960 --> 51:52.480
Like, this is a beautiful day.

51:53.320 --> 51:54.060
It's okay.

51:54.360 --> 51:56.140
And you know, you're worried about stuff

51:56.140 --> 51:59.780
that's gonna happen tomorrow and next week

51:59.780 --> 52:03.460
and the bills and the finances and your family

52:03.460 --> 52:06.060
and just like all the bad things that could be.

52:06.120 --> 52:08.060
But then you just go outside and you're like,

52:08.140 --> 52:09.680
you know what, I had a good breakfast today.

52:11.280 --> 52:12.720
It's beautiful outside,

52:14.140 --> 52:19.320
sun shining, I live in Arizona, life is good.

52:21.080 --> 52:24.400
Instead of just being negative and worrying about stuff.

52:25.680 --> 52:28.040
Because honestly, that stuff tomorrow,

52:28.300 --> 52:29.440
you can deal with that stuff tomorrow.

52:29.440 --> 52:30.520
You can deal with it next week.

52:31.240 --> 52:32.720
And so don't get overwhelmed

52:33.760 --> 52:35.500
by stressing too much about the future.

52:35.640 --> 52:37.680
I think that's one good lesson we could take away

52:37.680 --> 52:39.720
from Hezekiah here.

52:39.800 --> 52:42.160
Because again, Hezekiah's attitude,

52:42.740 --> 52:44.540
there's good and bad things about it.

52:44.660 --> 52:46.380
Unfortunately, life is not super simple.

52:46.540 --> 52:49.080
Sometimes things are complicated, you know?

52:49.180 --> 52:49.860
And it's kind of like,

52:50.160 --> 52:51.860
there's a good side and a bad side to things.

52:52.220 --> 52:55.040
And so overall, Hezekiah is a great man of God.

52:55.160 --> 52:56.280
We're done with Hezekiah now.

52:56.580 --> 52:58.020
In the next chapter, we're gonna read about

52:58.020 --> 52:59.600
God is evil 12 year old son.

53:00.460 --> 53:01.960
But Hezekiah is a great man of God.

53:02.680 --> 53:04.060
He's a man of great faith.

53:04.400 --> 53:06.060
Let's focus on the first part of the chapter.

53:06.260 --> 53:08.000
He loved the Lord.

53:08.300 --> 53:08.880
He prayed.

53:09.380 --> 53:10.840
He got his prayers answered.

53:11.620 --> 53:12.440
He had faith.

53:12.900 --> 53:14.640
He wanted to see big things from God.

53:15.040 --> 53:16.380
He expected a miracle.

53:16.940 --> 53:18.840
He wanted a big sign from God.

53:19.240 --> 53:22.060
He believes that God has the power to do something big.

53:22.360 --> 53:24.160
He's constantly listening to what the preacher

53:24.160 --> 53:25.980
and the man of God is telling him

53:25.980 --> 53:29.380
and he's got good communication with the pastor,

53:29.740 --> 53:31.540
the preacher, the prophet, if you will.

53:31.920 --> 53:33.160
And at the end of the day,

53:33.420 --> 53:35.220
he doesn't fight against God's word.

53:35.400 --> 53:37.500
Like whatever God's word says, he says, hey, it's good.

53:38.900 --> 53:39.400
You know?

53:39.560 --> 53:41.520
And maybe something bad's gonna happen in the future,

53:41.580 --> 53:43.960
but I'm gonna focus on how good things are today.

53:44.480 --> 53:45.480
Let's bards and have a word of prayer.

53:45.600 --> 53:46.960
Father, we thank you so much for your word.

53:47.600 --> 53:51.260
Thank you for Hezekiah as a great role model, Lord.

53:51.680 --> 53:55.020
Help us, Lord, to also live our lives by faith,

53:55.490 --> 53:56.680
to spend time in prayer.

53:56.900 --> 53:58.140
Every time we cry, Lord,

53:58.300 --> 54:00.500
help us to remember to turn those tears into prayers.

54:01.940 --> 54:04.220
And Lord, help us not to stress too much

54:04.220 --> 54:05.800
about things that are out of our control

54:06.480 --> 54:08.920
and to just focus on what's right in front of us

54:08.920 --> 54:11.800
and let your word just illuminate the next step

54:12.240 --> 54:13.040
in the path.

54:13.200 --> 54:14.140
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.