What Do You Do When Nobody’s Looking?

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN NOBODY’S LOOKING?

2 Chron. 32:31

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: THE COLLEGE STUDENT

1. A third year SAM (SHSU) student, Steve, was delivering pizzas for Pizza Hut. One evening he delivered a meal to Bernie’s house. He hands over the pizza & Bernie pays the bill.

2. Steve keeps standing there and Bernie finally says, begrudgingly, "I suppose you also want me to give you a tip?"

3. Steve doesn’t answer immediately, but looks at Bernie for a few seconds before replying. "Yes, sir, that would be most appreciated, especially as the guy who normally delivers to this area told me that I shouldn’t expect much from you. He said I should be thankful if I got $2"

4. "Well," says Bernie, "just to prove your friend wrong, here’s $5 for your efforts." "Thank you very much," says Steve. "This will go into the fund to pay for my education."

5. "Really?" says Bernie. "So what is your major?"

"Applied Psychology," replied Steve.

B. TEXT

2 Kgs 18:3 [Hezekiah] did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles…. 5 Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.

13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 19 The field commander [approached Jerusalem and] said, 32 “Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ 33 Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?” 19:35 The angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 [men] in the Assyrian camp. 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

2 Chr. 32:24 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. He prayed to the Lord, who answered him and gave him a miraculous sign. [God made the Sun go backwards ten steps!] 31 But when envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous sign [KJV “wonder”] that had occurred in the land, God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart.

2 Kgs. 20: 13 Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold…all [in] his kingdom. 16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 17 The time will surely come when everything in your palace…will be carried off to Babylon. 18 And some of your descendants…will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

C. THESIS

1. We’re looking at a man who experienced some of the greatest miracles of the O.T.. God made him a possible “star witness.”

2. We’re going to look at his remarkable experience with God, the testing he received, and how he did when he didn’t think God was paying attention.

3. The title of this message is, “What Do You Do When Nobody’s Looking?”

I. HEZEKIAH’S REMARKABLE WALK WITH GOD

A. HEZEKIAH’S FAITH & OBEDIENCE

1. Not only did he live up to the “gold standard” of David his father, he far surpassed him, and all other kings who ever reigned in Judah! 2 Kgs. 18:3,5.

2. He restored the Temple and Levitical priesthood and the prescribed sacrifices to worship God & atone for sin. He led all Israel in renewing their covenant to worship & serve Jehovah only (2 Chr. 29).

3. He demolished and destroyed all idol worship throughout the land of Judah. He even destroyed sins that had been practiced since the time of Moses – worship of the serpent of brass (1452 B.C.- 726 B.C. = 726 years). He destroyed it! (2 Kgs. 18:4)

4. For the first time since Solomon was King, He gathered all Israel to celebrate the Passover in national joy (2 Chr. 30:26; it hadn’t happened for 250 years!).

5. God was with him, even giving him military victory over the Philistines and, eventually, the mighty Assyrian army, the military superpower of that day. (2 Kgs. 18:7-8).

6. Hezekiah was a modern David, reestablishing the worship of Jehovah and freeing Israel from oppression from their enemies!

B. GOD ANSWERED IN 3 GREAT MIRACLES

1. SENNACHERIB’S DEFEAT. Sennacherib, the Assyrian King, came and blasphemed God. Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before God. God put 185,000 of them to death. They withdrew.

2. ILLNESS, RECOVERY. Next Hezekiah became ill. Told he would die. Pleaded for extension & got it: 15 more years.