But some of us do not have to be reminded because there are all kinds of emergencies that come up each day that remind us to pray.
Illus: A mother and her five year old son were headed to McDonald's. Before they reached the drive way to McDonald’s the mother noticed a car accident.
Whenever the mother saw something terrible like that, she made it a habit to pray for those who might be hurt.
She decided this would a be a good time to teach her son to do the same.
Instead of praying, she said to her son, "We should pray."
From the back seat she heard his earnest request: "Please, God, don't let those cars block the entrance to McDonald's."
Almost every day things happen that remind us we need to pray.
Hezekiah was a man of prayer.
• Hezekiah was King of Judah for 29 years.
• More space is given to Hezekiah in Scripture than to almost any other king since the time of Solomon.
Look at 2 Kings 18:1-7, we read, “Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did. He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Ne-hush-tan. He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses. And the LORD was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not.”
Make no mistake about it; this was a great man of God. He was a godly man and he was known for his godliness and goodness.
Because he was a king we may think that Hezekiah had a good start in life but this was not the case.
His father Ahaz was one of the wickedest kings in Judah's history, and during his reign the religious life of the nation reached an all-time low.
Look at 2 Kings 16:2-4 Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king and he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
Notice, the Bible tells us he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
People are not aware that God is watching us when:
• We do good!
• We do bad!
God has to watch us daily because if He did not He could not judge us fairly on the judgement day.
Ahaz was the worst of all the kings of Judah.
• He imitated the worst of the Israelite kings - Ahab and Ahaziah - by a re-introduction of the Baal worship, which had been rooted out of Israel by Jehu and out of Judah by Jehoiada.
• Ahaz adopted the Moloch worship of the Ammonites and Moabites and sacrificed at least one son, probably his firstborn, according to the horrid rites of those nations, and the Canaanite tribes.
• He followed the detestable ways of the nations that the Lord had driven out.
• He offered up sacrifices and burned incense at the high places on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.
This was the type of Father King Hezekiah had.
• With a father and a background like that we may wonder how Hezekiah became such a noble and spiritually minded man.
• Where did his faith in God and his spiritual character come from?
Certainly not from his home background as we have seen.
It can only have been that Gods’ spirit had worked directly in his life.
Not everybody has the blessing of being brought up in a godly home, in surroundings where the Bible is being read and prayers are being said. This shows us that God is a personal God, sovereign and an unrestricted God.
Your character and your relationship with God does not depend on someone else.
(1) It doesn't depend on your family background or culture.
(2) Your walk with God, your faith in God and relationship with Him does not depend on your parents or grandparent’s relationship with God.
(3) If your parents have a close relationship with God that doesn't mean that you will have a close relationship with God too.
(4) Likewise if your parents are far from God doesn't mean that you will be far from God.
Your relationship with God depends on you, it depends on nothing else and no one else.
• However Hezekiah did have the prophet Isaiah as a mentor.
• Hezekiah stayed close to the lord and listened to him.
As a God fearing man Hezekiah wanted to restore the spiritual life of the nation. Therefore there needed to be some demolition before construction could take place.
• . After the clearing out he started building. He focused on reviving the spiritual life of the nation.
1) Ahaz his father had closed the doors of God's house (2 Chronicles 28:24).
• But now In 2 Kings 18:4 we read how Hezekiah demolished all the idol worship.
• It was necessary to do this because God had totally rejected all the false worship that had gone on for generations.
• So Hezekiah got rid of everything that didn't please GodHezekiah opened the doors and repaired them (2 Chronicles 29:3-7).
• He explained to the priests where the church had gone wrong and what they needed to do to put things right.
• He called the people to prayer and worship. This was important if the power of God was to move again in the land.
He was a young godly man and everything in his life was working out perfectly.
He began to reign in Jerusalem at the age of twenty-five .
Everything in his life was great until we come to the message he received from Isaiah.
Look at . . .
I. THE MESSAGE
I am sure this is a message that Isaiah did not want to deliver.
Giving someone bad news is never easy, but there are right ways and wrong ways of going about it.
(1)Doctors have to give bad news and some are better at it than others.
Those who are bad at giving bad news we refer to them as doctors with bad bedside manners.
But most doctors have been trained to know how to break bad news to a patient.
But it is never easy.
(2)Military have to break bad news to the families that have lost a loved one in war.
(3)Police have to break bad news to the families who have lost a family member in a car.
(5)Isaiah had to give bad news to king Hezekiah.
He felt the best way to do this was to be straight forward.
Look at 2 Kings 20:1, “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.”
It is always shocking news when a person hears a doctor say that we need to get our house in order because we are soon going to die.
But this news:
1) Did not come from a doctor, it came from the prophet Isaiah
2) Did not come from x-rays and physical examinations, but from God Himself.
He was only 39 years of age when he got this devastating news.
1) He knew he would die some day, but not in the prime of his life when things were going so well for him….NOT NOW!
2) He planned to go, but he did not plan to go like this.
But we can never tell when and how we are going to go,
We may die…
1) In our sleep
2) While eating at Taco Bells
3) While driving
…we do not know when and how we are going to die.
We may die:
1) A peaceful death
2) We may die a violent death
We just do not know.
We never know when and how we are going to die.
Hezekiah knew he was going to die, but he did not want to die like this in the prime of his life.
1) He was like the song writer that wanted to write many more songs
2) He was like the poet that wanted to write many more poems.
3) He was like the artist that wanted to paint many more paintings.
4) He was like the Preacher who wanted to preach many more sermons.
But he was told to get his house ready because he was fixing to die.
Notice, it was “No, If ands are Buts” he was told he was going to die.
The prophet Isaiah came to him and said, “Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.”
There were a number of reasons that he did not want to die at the age of thirty-nine.
1) He was in the prime of his life
2) He was at the peak of his career
3) His son was too young to inherit the throne
HE FELT THAT THIS WAS NO TIME TO BE DYING!
There are people that life has turned sour on them. Perhaps:
1) They went bankrupt and lost everything they have worked for in life they want to die.
2) They were in a war and came back home with no arms or legs they wanted to die.
3) They had a painful incurable disease they want to die.
There are people like this and they welcome death. BUT THIS IS NOT THE CASE WITH HEZEKIAH, HE HAD EVERYTHING GOING FOR HIM AND HE DID NOT WANT TO DIE!!!
This news could not have come at a worst time for Hezekiah.
He heard the message from the prophet Isaiah that he was going to die.
We have looked at THE MESSAGE and now look at. . .
II. THE MOURNING
Look at verses 2-3, we read, “Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.”
Notice the words, “He turned his face to the wall and prayed…”
This godly king had turned to God during the good times and now he is turning to God during the bad times.
Look at his request to God.
Look at verse 3, the reason he stated he did not want to die.
He turned his face to the wall and prayed, “I beseech (Beg) thee, O LORD, REMEMBER now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.”
In this prayer he said, “…O Lord, remember…”
He wanted God to remember two things.
1) “Remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart.”
2) “And have done that which is good in thy sight.”
Was he saying God I have lived a good life and now you owe me something?
No, Hezekiah knew God does not owe us anything. If God never does anything else for us he has already done more than He should have.
Why did he want God to remember these things?
Because He wanted God to hear his prayer and he knew that God was not going to hear the prayer of the wicked.
A LOT OF FOLKS DO NOT KNOW THAT!
You see, there are people who profess to be saved and they:
1) Hang out with the ungodly
2) Go places they should not go
3) Say things they should not say
4) Read things they should not be reading
5) Watch things on television they should not be watching
6) Gossip about people behind their backs
7) Disobey the commandments of God
Then get on their knees and call on God in prayer and wonder why God never answers their prayers.
The Bible tells us in Psa. 16:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear [me]:”
At first glance or a quick read we get the idea that David is saying that if we have iniquity in our hearts God will not answer our prayer. But actually he is saying with sin in our life He will not even listen to our prayer.
While in this life we shall never be completely free from all sin, yet it is possible for us to regard or harbor sin in our hearts. If we do not confess and forsake sin, it will create a barrier between us and God and prevent God from blessing us.
Hezekiah knew he would be wasting his time if he had lived such a life. And he wanted God to remember he had lived a godly life.
This great man of God was weeping in such a way that I believe you could have heard him in the nest zip code.
The Bible says, “…Hezekiah wept sore.” He wept before God and God heard His prayer.
We have looked at:
I. THE MESSAGE,
II. THE MOURNING
and now look at. . .
III. THE MIRACLE
Look at 2 Kings 20:1, we read, “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.”
We do not know what kind of sickness he had, but God healed him. All healing comes from the Lord.
1) Today we have a lot of these fake healers claiming to have the power to heal people. BUT THEY HAVE NEVER HEALED ANYONE!
2) Doctors can open us up and cut things out of us that are causing problems, but it is God that heals those wounds.
Just because we have all these fake healers on television that are getting rich off of people does not mean God no longer heals people.
1) If I did not believe God could heal people I would not waste my time going to the hospital and praying for them to be heal.
2) If we as a church did not believe that God heal people today we would not take time in our church service to pray for the sick.
Hezekiah had some kind of terminal sickness, and Isaiah told him that HE NEEDED TO GET HIS HOUSE IN ORDER BECAUSE HE WAS NOT GOING TO BE AROUND VERY MUCH LONGER.
Isaiah brought the message to him about this terminal disease, and this godly man that loved God began to pray, and before Isaiah got out of Hezekiah’s yard, look at what happened.
Look at verses 4-6, we read, “And it came to pass, before Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.”
Hezekiah was a godly man and God heard his prayer and answered his prayer and added fifteen more years to his life.
Look at:
I. THE MESSAGE,
II. THE MOURNING,
III.THE MIRACLE
And now let us look at . . .
IV. THE MISTAKE
When we pray, we need to remember GOD DOES NOT MAKE MISTAKES, but WE DO!
God has already sent the message that Hezekiah was going to die.
Now it seems God has changed his mind!
Can we through prayer change the mind of God?
Theologians have argued this for centuries because God is IMMUTABLE (He changes not)
But we do know this God changed His mind about Hezekiah dying.
I like what R.C. Sproul says about this. He said,
Does prayer make any difference? Does it really change anything? Someone once asked me that question, only in a slightly different manner: “Does prayer change God’s mind?” My answer brought storms of protest. I said simply, “No.” Now, if the person had asked me, “Does prayer change things?” I would have answered, “Of course!”
In the life of Hezekiah we certainly see PRAYER CHANGES THINGS.
But we must remember, God knows best and if we pray against the perfect will of God for our lives, we are settling for the PERMISSIVE WLL OF GOD in our lives instead of the PERFECT WILL OF GOD.
That is, in some cases people commit the SIN UNTO DEATH and God kills them.
1) But in many cases God will allow a person to live in the PERMISSIVE WILL OF GOD AND SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!!!
2) When we choose to live in the PERFECT WILL OF GOD WE ENJOY THE BENEFITS!!!
We can pray:
• LIKE CHRIST, THY WILL BE DONE
• LIKE HEZEKIAH MY WILL BE DONE.
When God sent Isaiah to tell him he was going to die, GOD WAS DOING THE VERY BEST THING FOR HEZEKIAH. IT WAS GOD’S WILL FOR HEZEKIAH TO COME TO HIS ETERNAL HOME.
It was the will of God for Hezekiah to die at the age of 39. But God told Isaiah to go back and tell him He was going to extend his life by fifteen years.
Instead of dying at 39 he died at 54 years of age.
BUT I WANT TO REMIND YOU AGAIN…GOD DOES NOT MAKE MISTAKES!
And had God’s perfect will been done, he would have died at 39 instead of 54.
BUT IT WAS A PRAYER THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN PRAYED.
Illus: C. S. Lewis recognized that if God had given him everything he’d asked for, his life would have been a mess! The most loving answer God can sometimes give is, “No.” God knows best! He knows exactly what we need and He has our best interests in mind.
WHY WAS IT A MISTAKE FOR THIS PRAYER TO BE PRAYED?
God healed him of this deadly sickness and he lived to bear a SON WHO WOULD BECOME THE MOST EVIL RULER IN JUDAH’S HISTORY -- KING MANASSEH!
God is OMNISCIENT and He can look down into the future and knows what was going to take place.
Illus: We have fortune tellers who claim to be OMNISCIENT and be able to look into the future.
Listen, all they can see is that a person comes to them is an idiot that has some money that they want.
God told Israel in Leviticus 19:31 “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God..”
God is OMNISCIENT and he could see that if Hezekiah was to live he would give birth to Manasseh.
King Manasseh came to the throne at only 12 years of age, when his father, the good King Hezekiah, died.
1) Manasseh made it his mission to undo the good reforms instituted by his father, and to do a great deal of evil.
2) Hezekiah had destroyed shrines of pagan worship throughout the land; Manasseh rebuilt them, adding also shrines to Baal and Asherah.
3) He desecrated the LORD's temple by putting altars for idol worship in it.
4) He sacrificed his own sons, burning them to death in worship of the idol Molech.
5) Manasseh murdered so many people that the historian wrote that he, “filled Jerusalem from one end to the other” with innocent blood.
6) The LORD sent prophets to warn of the disaster that would come because the people followed Manasseh in his great sins — Judah would be destroyed by their enemies. But the king and people ignored the warnings.
If God’s will had been done when it was time for Hezekiah to die at 39 years of age…ALL THESE MURDERS AND THIS EVIL WOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN DONE.
The reason today that so many lives are ruined is because their prayer is MY WILL BE DONE instead of THY WILL BE DONE.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger tells about a family God had sent to his church. They were in the will of God and God was using them greatly in the church.
The wife was visiting with her sister in another town and her sister talked with her about moving into her town.
She told her how God was using them in the church but eventually she talked her into moving.
Her husband was against it because he felt they were in the will of God living where they were living.
The wife became so set on moving that she put it to him, with him or without, him she was going to give up everything they were doing for the Lord and move.
They moved and shortly after they moved their young son was riding a motor bike and had an accident and he is paralyze from the waist down.
Getting out of the will of God is a dangerous thing!!!
Illus: There are people who wanted to buy houses and cars they could not afford. And they jumped in debt and now because they got out of the will of God they are buried with a financial debt they can barely afford to buy a tooth brush.
Illus: We can see in the Bible of a man call Jonah that got out of the will of God and was swallowed by a whale.
God knows best and people would not get their life messed up if they would pray:
• God what college should I attend.
• God who should I marry.
• Lord should I take that job.
• Lord should I buy that house.
When we think we are smarter than God we are in bad shape.
God answered Hezekiah but a lot of ennocent blood was shed that would not have been shed if he had not prayed MY WILL BE DONE INSTEAD OF PRAYING THY WILL BE DONE.
Conclusion:
Listen, we have to remember as we pray, that God can do ANYTHING, but there are SOME THINGS we do not want God to do.
We want His will to be done because He does not make mistakes.
Before I close I want to address the loss that is listening. God is saying to every lost person here today SET THY HOUSE IN ORDER.
Why?
Because you are going to die and you do not want to die without Christ as your Savior.
We have looked at:
I. THE MESSAGE
II. THE MOURNING
III. THE MIRACLE
IV. THE MISTAKE
Note: If you would like to hear Dr. Odell Belger preach this sermon and many more…Go on the Internet and type Youtube Lykesland
Thanks!!!
