Wednesday Night Service 7PM - 2 Chronicles 27-29, Pastor Ryan Nichols

Hello, everyone. All right, let's start with a word of prayer. Dear God, thank you for gathering us together tonight to just be refreshed in you and to hopefully learn something new about your word and to hear you speak to us through your word and through Pastor Ryan. And I pray that we will just all completely let go of everything that's been going on and just turn our minds 100% to you and worship you and learn about you and just give you all the praise that you deserve. In Jesus' name, amen.

All right, will you guys all stand for the first song? Thank you for sending your son. We are so undeserving and yet somehow you still did that for us. It's just so amazing to me that that sacrifice was made for all of us. Please help us to remember that and not to just let it become something that we're used to and that just is something we barely acknowledge anymore, but to really think about it and meditate on that and remember what you've

done for us. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Good evening. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Chronicles chapter 27. 2 Chronicles chapter 27. The last time that we were together, we ended by talking about King Uzziah, who really was a great king. Other than one issue that he had at the very end of his life, he allowed pride to come in. And dominate his thinking. And so he went in and made a sacrifice in the temple, which was not

lawful for the king to do. And so ultimately his life ended in leprosy because the corruption that was on the inside of him with pride ultimately came out on the outside of him through leprosy. And so tonight we continue on with the stories of the kings of Judah. And tonight we come to the son of Uzziah, and his name is Jotham. It says in chapter 27 verse 1, and Jotham was 25 years old.

When he became king. And he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok. And he did right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father Uzziah had done. However, he did not enter the temple of the Lord. But the people continued acting corruptly. Jotham is really a bright spot compared to the last three kings that we just saw

beforely. Jotham is going to be the exact opposite of that. Not only is he going to start well, but he's going to finish well. And we're given this commentary that he did right in the eyes of the Lord, just like Uzziah did. Because remember, Uzziah had a stain on his life at the end. But other than that, he was a great king. He did much in the area of reforms within the nation and

brought a lot of good things. And this is what Jotham does. Jotham was a great king who did right in the eyes of the Lord. But we're given this one little addendum, this one little commentary on his reign. It says, And I think that that's a good reminder for us that just because there's a good leader doesn't mean that people are going to follow. Just because there's a good leader who's doing what he's

supposed to doesn't mean that the heart of the nation has turned back to the things of the Lord. As a matter of fact, so remember, during the reign, actually at the very end of the reign of King Uzziah is when the prophet Isaiah began to prophesy. As a matter of fact, Isaiah's commissioning comes in Isaiah chapter 6, and it starts off in the year that King Uzziah died. I saw the Lord high and lifted up. And so that death of Uzziah sort of instituted the beginning of

Isaiah's ministry, prophetically speaking. But if you look at the book of Isaiah, you'll find that so many times in Isaiah, the criticism that Isaiah has of the people is that they were doing all of the right things outwardly, but they were not doing all of the right things inwardly. And it's because they had a good leader, especially under Jotham. They had a good leader. They had a good leader,

who was instituting good things within the nation, who was leading in a godly way. And the people were following with outward obedience, but there was no real heart behind it. As a matter of fact, in Isaiah, God eventually said, could you just stop? Would you just stop bringing sacrifices to me? Actually, I'm kind of tired of them. I'm tired of the smell of sacrificial lambs

because there's no real heart behind it. And so this is kind of what's going on in the nation right now. The good leader, the heart of the people, unfortunately, continued to act corruptly. It goes on with the reign of Jotham. He built the upper gate of the house of the Lord, and he built extensively the wall of Ophel. Moreover, he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and he built

fortresses and towers on the wooded hills. He fought also with the kings of the Ammonites and prevailed over them so that the Ammonites gave him, during that year, 100 talents of silver, 10,000 cores of wheat, and 10,000 talents of gold. And he built a wall of Ophel. And he built a wall of 10,000 of barley. And the Ammonites also paid him this amount in the second and the third year.

And pay really close attention to verse 6. So Jotham became mighty because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God. And this gives us the secret to Jotham's success, is that he ordered his ways according to the Lord his God. I read this in the New Living Translation. I love the way the New Living Translation puts this. It says, Jotham was successful because he was careful

to live in obedience to the Lord. He was careful to live in obedience to the Lord. In other words, he paid attention to his life, and he made sure that his life matched up with the proclamations that he made. And so because of that, he had this great success because he simply was careful to obey the Lord in everything that he did. It says, now the rest of the acts of Jotham, even all his

wars and acts, behold, they're written in the books, the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. He was 25 years old when he became king, reigned 16 years. Jotham slept with his fathers and buried David, and Ahaz, his son, became king in his place. So next we come to chapter 28. We come to the reign of this king Ahaz. It says, Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king. He reigned 16 years

in Jerusalem, and he did not do right in the sight of the Lord as David, his father, had done. But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and he also made molten images for the Baals. We'll go into all the things he did here in just a minute. But Ahaz, the son, comes along, and we're told about him that he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He didn't follow the example of

his father David. Instead, he followed the example of the kings of Israel. And I find it kind of interesting that it doesn't even say he didn't follow the example of his father Jotham, who walked in all the ways of David. Instead, he followed after the kings of Israel. And I'm reminded of something. As I read this book, I'm reminded of something. I'm reminded of something.

It really struck me that we all have one of two examples that we're going to follow in our life. We are either going to follow the ways of God that are exampled before us by godly men and women that have gone before us, whether those godly men and women be our parents or mentors or people that we look up to. There are godly examples that are set out for us. Or we will follow the example of the people of the world. One of those two examples is what we're going to follow. The choice is made

every single day of our life. The choice is made every single day of our life. The choice is made every single day of our life. Which example am I going to follow? I would tell you that if you continue to follow the example of mentors who are pursuing God, who are following God, then you will find that your life moves farther and farther away from sin and closer and closer to the Savior who

not only meant something to them, but now is meaning something to you. And as you do so, your life will continue to mimic those things. But if you begin to follow the example of the people around you, you will find that your life will continue to go further and further, down a hill that sometimes there's no stopping, right? This is what's going to happen in the life of Ahaz. He goes from a father who did everything properly, a father who followed the Lord. We just

read that the reason why he was so successful is that he was careful to live in obedience to the Lord. And that example was set before him every day of his life. And instead, he followed after the things of the world. And you find that when you follow after the things of the world, you slowly begin to boil in the sins of the world. And this is exactly what happens in the life of Ahaz, because I want you to notice the

quick decline his life takes. Middle of verse 2.

On the hills and under every green tree. I find it fascinating how quickly we fell off that cliff. Did you notice that? Like that escalated quickly. We went from, we're not doing right in the eyes of the Lord. Instead, we're following after the kings of Israel, to we're making idols, molten images. That's what that means. In other words, these are cast images in the way of all

of the Baals, which sometimes Baal is used as just a general term for gods in the area. And then Baal is used as a specific god. I believe this is one of those specific instances, which oftentimes has to do with not only fertility of the land, but also fertility of body. And oftentimes, that carried into unwanted pregnancies because of the way that they worshipped this god Baal. And so those unwanted pregnancies, they had to solve for that. You see, they

would sacrifice the firstborn son to the god of Molech, which is what they call causing his son to pass through the fire. I won't go into the details of that because I think we pretty well figure out what that means. But he then all of a sudden comes to the place of not only is he making images to this foreign god, but it led all of a sudden to the fact that human life is no longer important. Instead, what's important is worshipping the god of pleasure, worshipping the god of convenience. And they did it all in the name of worshipping a god who was greater than

them. It sounds a lot like today, does it not? I mean, after all, we have all kinds of battles along this exact same line. And I don't need to tell you because I'm preaching to the choir at some point in time. But we have it today, only we don't call it Molech. We call it abortion. And we don't call it the Valley of Hinnom. We call it Planned Parenthood. And it's in a very different place, but the sin is the same.

And I'll tell us all the exact same thing that I say every time I talk about this. A, we need to know that every life has value, no matter how young, in the womb or outside of the womb, whatever the color is, whatever, it doesn't matter. Every life has value. And we have to remember that. And we have to understand that the taking of a life, just because all of a sudden you've decided that since it's inside of the womb, it doesn't have

the same value as it does outside of the womb, is still murder. And it's still a crime against the Lord. That being said, for those who have fallen victim to this, I'll always remind you that there is forgiveness and there is restoration in the Lord. There's always restoration for those who are willing to come to the Lord to be healed of this. And I think we have to remember as the

church that our job, while part of it is to point out the sins of the nations around us, it is also to offer the gospel to the broken. And I think that we have to remember that. Because usually we fall into one of two categories. We either one fall into the category of the judgmental, and don't get me wrong, everybody loves to say, well, you know, Jesus said, Jesus said, don't judge. Actually, Jesus taught us the right way to judge, and that's that we first

of all look at the sin in our own lives, and then once we have dealt with the sin in our own lives, we have the proper posture of humility to confront sin in the life of someone else. That's what Jesus actually did, if you read that entire chapter in context, but while Jesus gave us the proper way to do that, he also gave us the proper way to bring healing, which is through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and so on one hand, we're just these judgmental jerks who just want to point out everything everybody's done wrong, and then on the other hand, sometimes we take the other side, and we excuse all sin in the name of love, and in the middle of it, there's a balance

that's biblical that says sin is still sin, and it's punishable by death, but Jesus took that death so that you don't have to, and he's able to heal and restore, and so we find ourselves having fallen off of this cliff in the nation of Judah, and he took the whole nation with him. Remember, their hearts already continued to act corruptly, and now they have a leader that fits their hearts. I think this is a good time to insert what J. Vernon McGee always says, and that's that God gives us the leaders that we deserve. God gives us the leaders that we deserve, and

this is kind of where they are in the nation of Judah, and so it goes on from there, and of course God's going to begin to deal with them. It says, wherefore, verse 5 of chapter 28, wherefore the Lord delivered him into the hand of Aram, and they defeated him, and carried away from him a great number of captives, and brought them to Damascus, and he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who inflicted him with heavy casualties. For Pekah, the son of Remaliah, slew in Judah 120,000 in one day, all valiant men, because they had failed him. Forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. And Zichriah, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maasiah, the king's

son, and Azraqam, the ruler of the house of Elkanah, the second to the king, and the sons of Israel carried away the captives of the brethren, 200,000 women, sons and daughters, and they took also a great deal of spoil from them, and they brought the spoil to Samaria. We're told in Scripture, don't be deceived, God is not mocked. And if you sow to destruction, then you will reap destruction. This is what happens in the nation of Judah. It was first of all the king of Aram, and then all of a sudden the king of Israel,

who, by the way, is who he's acting like at this point in time, because these are the sins that Israel was giving into, and yet God used Israel to be an instrument of judgment, and it says he absolutely wiped out the many valiant warriors. Why? In the verse six, they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. You see, the very secret to the reign of Jotham was the very downfall to the reign of Ahaz. The secret to the reign of Jotham is that he was

strengthened because he lived carefully in obedience unto the Lord. The downfall of the reign of Ahaz is that he gave in to every sin that the world had to offer. And so they take all of these captives, but in all of this, God still proves himself merciful and faithful. I want you to listen to what he says. Verse nine, But a prophet of the Lord was there, whose name was Oded, and he went to meet the army which came

to Samaria, and said to him, Behold, because the Lord God of your fathers was angry with Judah, he has delivered them into your hand, and you have slain them in a rage which has even reached heaven. Now you're proposing to subjugate for yourselves the people of Judah and Jerusalem for male and female slaves. Surely, do you not, surely, do you not have transgressions of your own against the Lord your God? Now therefore, listen to me and return the captives whom you captured from your brothers, for the burning anger of the Lord is against you. And some of the heads of Ephraim, Azariah,

the son of Johanan, Berechiah, the son of Meshulamoth, man, they're testing me here, Jehezekiah, the son of Shalom, and Amasa, the son of Hadli, arose against those who were coming from the battle, and they said, You must not bring the captives into the land of Israel. And they said, You must not bring the captives into the land of Israel. And they said, You must not bring the captives in here, for you are proposing to bring upon us guilt against the Lord, adding to our sins and our guilt, for our guilt is so great that his burning anger is against Israel. So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the officers and all the assembly. Then the men who

were designated by name arose, took the captives, they clothed all their naked ones from the spoil, and they gave them clothes and sandals, and they fed them, they gave them drink, they anointed them with oil, and they gave them wine, and they gave them wine, and they gave them wine, and they gave them oil, and they led their feeble ones on donkeys, and they brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brothers, and then they returned to Samaria. Isn't it amazing that in the midst of the nation being as faithless as possible, God still shows himself faithful to his promise? Because God is faithful even when we are faithless. And the entire story of 1 and 2 Chronicles is a faithful God to a faithless people. This is what happens.

The nation of Israel had taken all of these captives and they're on their way back. Essentially God used them as an arm of judgment, but that arm of judgment got out of control. And so God brought them back under control. He sends a prophet of the Lord named Oded. Only time we read about this guy in scripture. Fascinating, right? Can you imagine how brave this guy is? Right? Like when

I think of a prophet, I think of a guy like me. Just, you know, just an average dude, right? And he goes up to some of the most fierce warriors possible, who are the most powerful, the most powerful, the most powerful, the most powerful, the most powerful, the most powerful, the most powerful, the most powerful, the most powerful, the most powerful, the most powerful, the most powerful, literally are bloodthirsty at this point in time because they just want a great battle. And he, on his own, stands in front of an army that just wiped out the entire army of Judah and says, stop. Don't you understand? You were used as an arm of judgment, but your violence was so great

that it's reached up to heaven. Don't you have transgressions of your own that God has against you? Send the captives back. And they listened to him. They listened to this average guy. Why? Because God, in that moment, gave him authority beyond his ability because he was speaking the truth of God into their lives. Brothers and sisters, you cannot underestimate the authority that God will give you if you are willing to stand on the truth and

make a bold stand for God. I was just reading in Daniel chapter 3 this morning. In Daniel chapter 3, it's, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, except for those of us who have watched the Veggie Tales, and then we know it's Rack, Shack, and Benny. And they stood against the king. They would not bow down to the statue, right? And he was so ticked off at him. He said, I'm going to give you one more chance

to bow down and worship the statue. Otherwise, I'm going to throw you into the fiery furnace, and I'm going to torch your rear ends. And they looked at him, and they said, listen, it's not even a decision to make. Our God is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace. And even if he doesn't, we are still not going to bow down to you. The authority that these three

teenage slaves had in this moment to talk to the most powerful man in the known world at that point in time with such authority only comes because they were standing on the truth of God's word and in obedience to him. Friends, don't be afraid to stand on the truth and to stand in the authority of God's word. This is what Oded does. And they listen to him. Not only do they listen to him, these guys show

incredible kindness. Did you know what they did? Did you notice what they did? They start taking from the spoils. Essentially, everything that they made off of this victory, they start taking people's clothes. They start clothing them. They start feeding them. This is how I picture this in my brain, because basically what they said, they anoint them with oil. They're taking rags, and

they're washing their faces, and they're treating their wounds. They are showing kindness above and beyond. They are showing kindness above and beyond. They are showing kindness above and beyond. All because Oded was willing to make a stand and said, that's too far. Send them back. That's exactly what they did, because God was faithful, even though the people were faithless. Well, we go

on from there. Unfortunately, this does not speak to King Ahaz. He's still a moron. At that time, King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help. Can we all say, dumb idea? Go ahead. Wait, say it one more time. You're like, hey, maybe he'll help me. Maybe he'll be my friend. And so he sends for help. He sends to King Ahaz, or King Ahaz sends to the king of Assyria for help. It says, for again,

the Edomites, sorry about the response thing. I just came from youth camp, and I'm just used to this right now. So anyway, thank you. For again, the Edomites had come and attacked Judah and carried away captives. The Philistines had also invaded the cities of the lowland, and of the Why does Ahaz have to send to Assyria for help? Because all of the enemies of God keep coming against them.

And listen, they're sent by God. Why are all of these enemies sent by God? Well, it tells us right here. He's humbling Judah. Why? Because of the king of Israel named Ahaz. Did you notice what it just called Ahaz? Let me read it to you again. For the Lord humbled Judah because of Ahaz, king of Israel. Is Ahaz the king of Israel right now? No, he's the king of Judah right now.

Why does the writer of the Chronicles choose to call him the king of Israel? Because that's who he's acting like. And eventually, you have to own your identity if you're going to live in sin. And this is exactly what happens to Ahaz. He humbles him because he's acting like the king of Israel, which is he's not. For he had brought about a lack of restraint in Judah and was very unfaithful to the Lord.

At the end of the day, Ahaz is acting more like the king of Israel than the king of Judah. And he's being very unfaithful to the Lord. And so God had to humble Judah. And rather than him humbling himself before the Lord, rather than him realizing what's going on, which everybody else in the world could see, he refuses to humble himself. It's always interesting because there seems to be one of two choices that we have in the Bible

as far as we are concerned. We can either humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, or we can be humbled by the Lord. That's really the two choices that we have. And I don't know about you, I'm always going to try to choose humbling myself because if God humbles me, it's going to really be a bummer, right? It's going to really be a bummer when God humbles us.

Because if I humble myself, that's between me and Jesus. But when God humbles us, he usually does so in about the most public stage possible. Not always, but oftentimes that seems to be the way that it works. And so he's humble. He's humbling the king of Judah at this point in time. It says, So Tiglath, pleaser, king of Assyria, verse 20, came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him.

Although Ahaz had taken a portion out of the house of the Lord and out of the place of the king and of the princes, and he gave it to the king of Assyria, it did not help him. Why? Because asking for help from the king of Assyria was a dumb idea. It actually backfired on him. Isn't it amazing? That something he did in his flesh backfired on him. Now, I don't need a show of hands.

Can anybody agree with that? Anybody had that happen in their lives? You make a step in the flesh and it blows up in your face. Almost like the entire Bible tells a story just like that. It says, It did not help him. Verse 22. Now in the time of his distress, the same king Ahaz became, wait for it, it gets better, yet more unfaithful to the Lord. For he sacrificed himself,

to the gods of Damascus, which had defeated him. And said, Because the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me. But they became the downfall of him and all Israel. Moreover, when Ahaz gathered together the utensils of the house of God, he cut the utensils of the house of God in pieces, and he closed the doors of the house of the Lord.

He made altars for himself in every corner of Jerusalem, in every city of Judah, and he made high places to burn incense to other gods. And he provoked the Lord, the God of his fathers, to anger. The rest of his acts and all his ways from first to last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah in Israel. So Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel.

And Hezekiah his son reigned in his place. Ahaz will go down as the worst king, Judah had. Manasseh tries to tie him, but Manasseh will end up repenting. Ahaz never did. He continued to live in his sin. And did you notice that the pattern? It began by following the wrong example. It continued by falling off of the cliff into the things of the world. It continued by being unfaithful to the Lord.

And even when God tried to humble him, he was yet even more unfaithful to the Lord. He was yet even more unfaithful to the Lord. He was yet even more unfaithful to the Lord. And ultimately dies a humiliating death. And ultimately dies a humiliating death. It's okay, it's going to get happier. Ready? You guys ready for something a little bit better? Hezekiah.

Hezekiah became king. Chapter 29 verse 1. When he was 25 years old. And he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. And he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. His mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. And he did right in the sight of the Lord, And he did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.

according to all that his father David had done. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and he repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the square on the east. Thank God we have the bright spot of Hezekiah in all of this, right?

Isn't it fascinating? Hezekiah is raised by probably the worst father you can imagine. the worst father you can imagine. What did his father do to his older brothers? He sacrificed them. I've never thought about this from the perspective of Hezekiah in this moment before until I was listening to Damian Kyle teach today. And he said, when Hezekiah comes to the throne,

he comes to the throne knowing that the rightful owner of the throne, his father, had sacrificed before he was even born. And the knowledge of that would have been in his mind as he reigned in the way that he did. I never thought about that before. But what a fantastic perspective. What a fantastic light to shine on the reign of Hezekiah. And what we're told about Hezekiah is that he did right in the sight of the Lord

according to all that his father David had done. And that doesn't even carry the full weight that 2 Kings carries. In 2 Kings chapter 18, it says, There was no king. There was no king after him that obeyed and trusted the Lord like he did, nor was there any king before him. In other words, his reign was probably even more godly than David's. And David is the standard that every other king is held to.

This guy's a fantastic man of God. And listen, it had nothing to do with the father that raised him. And I'll tell it to you again, just like I love to say, God is bigger than broken pasts. And God is bigger than broken families. Listen, I got to minister to a lot of kids this weekend. Not just me, a whole slew of us did. And I'm here to tell you right now,

we have kids growing up in very broken families right now. Throughout the state of Kansas. If you listen to stories, it'll break your heart. But I gotta tell you about my friend Jack.

After the Saturday night session, my friend Jack came up and just, Jack's a large young man. And while I'm bigger than I used to be, I'm still not a big guy. And so Jack just engulfs me in a hug, right? And he just, he won't let go. He's crying and he's just hugging me. He told me nothing about his past. He just said, I just need Jesus. And so I prayed with him and then he goes back

and then he goes and finds this huddle leader and they go to the back. And on my way out, on my way to head to the next thing that I was going to that evening, everything's kind of settling down and everybody's starting to head back to their rooms. I'm getting ready to go hang out with a bunch of coaches and eat ice cream with them. Jack looks at me and he says, hey Ryan, I received Jesus tonight.

And I said, that's amazing. We stopped and took a selfie right then. I posted it on my Instagram. Because I said, this is something that we gotta put up right now. Like, people gotta know, you found Jesus. Because you're, this is day one. This is day one for you. But Jack was just one of many kids who came from a broken past, who came from a broken family. Maybe, I don't know his whole story.

But one of the many kids that we ministered to that God is bigger than their broken family. And that God is bigger than their broken past. Because that's what God's able to do. Is he is able to restore. He is able to heal. He is able to overcome. And he is able to turn someone who came from a broken past, from a broken family into the king of Judah. One of the most godly men we read about in all of scripture.

Well, so he begins these reforms. It says, in the first month, he opens the doors of the house of the Lord. I didn't point it out when we read it in the last chapter. But as Ahaz was giving all of these things to the king of Assyria to try to get him to protect him. One of the things it says he did, not only did he cut up and give away all of the implements of the house of Judah,

but he also gave away all of the implements of the house of Judah. But it said he closed the doors to the temple. He closed the doors of the house of the Lord. And one of the first things that Hezekiah does is he opens up the doors of the house of the Lord. I don't know how you picture this in your mind. This is the way I picture this in my mind. I picture, you know, removing perhaps some two-by-fours

that got nailed up there. And he pulls those down. And they open the doors. As the doors open. Because there's just dust everywhere. And he says, boys, we've got a job to do. It's time to get this temple back in order. And that's exactly what he does. It says, verse 4, he brought in the priests and the Levites and he gathered them into the square on the east.

And then he said to them, listen to me, O Levites, consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place. For our fathers have been unfaithful and they have done evil in the sight of the Lord our God and have forsaken us. They have forsaken him and turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord. And they have turned their backs.

They have also shut the doors of the porch and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the house and the holy place to the God of Israel. Therefore, the wrath of the Lord was against Judah and Jerusalem. And he made them an object of terror, of horror, and of hissing. As you see with your own eyes. For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword.

Our sons are daughters, sons, daughters, and wives. Our sons are in captivity. And it's in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, that his burning anger may turn away from us. He says, guys, it's time to restore what we know we're supposed to do. Consecrate yourselves. Consecrate the temple. Get rid of all of the uncleanness. Because all of this is why we've ended up

in the position that we're in today. And I'm gonna make a covenant with the Lord that we are gonna follow him. Oh man, get you geeked up, doesn't it? Get you excited. I'm excited to hear that. But as excited as we are to read that, I'm always reminded that we're the temple of the Lord. We're the temple of the Holy Spirit. Are the doors open? And has the uncleanness been carried out?

Are the doors to the temple open? In other words, does God have all the access he needs to the home of the Holy Spirit? And has all the uncleanness been carried out? Or is there some more consecration that needs to take place in your life? Are there some areas that you've been holding back from God that it's time to say, okay, Lord, I'm gonna open the door there too.

And let's get that uncleanness out so that I can make a covenant with you that I'll follow you with all of my heart. And this is what he says to them. He says, verse 11, my sons, do not be negligent for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him, to minister to him, and to be his ministers and burn incense. Then the Levites arose, all those guys, and from the sons of all those guys, and they assembled, verse 15, their brothers consecrated themselves and they went in to cleanse the house of the Lord according to the commandment of the king by the words of the Lord.

So the priest went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it. And every unclean thing which they found in the temple of the Lord, they brought out to the court of the house of the Lord. The Levites received it to carry it out to the king of the house of the Lord. To the Kidron Valley. Now they began the consecration on the first day of the month.

And on the eighth day of the month, they entered the porch of the Lord and they consecrated the house of the Lord in eight days and finished on the 16th day of the first month. And they went into King Hezekiah and said, we have cleansed the house, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils and all the table of showbread with all its utensils. Moreover, all the utensils which King Ahaz had discarded during his reign and his unfaithfulness, we have prepared and consecrated. And behold, they are before the altar of the Lord.

Do you notice how long it took them to do all of this? More than two weeks of cleaning out the temple. More than two weeks of hauling out the garbage that idolatry had brought in. More than two weeks of cleaning up the instruments so that they could be used in the proper way. So that the anointing oil was as it should be. So that the lampstand looked like it was supposed to.

So that the table of showbread was dusted off and ready for worship. And for 12 fresh loaves of bread to be put there. So that the altar was clean and pristine and ready for sacrificial lambs to be brought to it. So that the laver was cleaned out and ready for fresh water for the cleansing of the priests in order to do the work of the ministry of the temple.

More than two weeks it took them to do that. That's a long time of cleaning out what really was not that big of a building. But I'll remind you of something. They didn't get to the place of the temple looking like that overnight. And you won't get out of it overnight. And I'll remind us of the same thing. You didn't land yourself in a place of sin overnight.

And you won't completely cleanse yourself overnight. It takes time to work through the things of the flesh sometimes that we have to work through. When we find ourselves falling into some area of sin in our life, it takes time to cleanse that and to get all that garbage. But don't be negligent. Don't be negligent in the way that we handle the cleansing of the temple.

Be diligent in the way that we handle it. And so everything's ready. It's time to go back and use the temple again. It says, Then King Hezekiah arose early and assembled the princes, verse 20, of the city and he went up to the house of the Lord. And they brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats for a sin offering for the kingdom, the sanctuary, and Judah.

And he ordered the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the Lord. So they slaughtered the bulls and the priests took the blood and they sprinkled it on the altar and they slaughtered the rams and they sprinkled the blood on the altar and they slaughtered the lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar. They brought the male goats of the sin offering before the king and the assembly and they laid their hands on them and the priests slaughtered them and they purged the altar with their blood to atone for all Israel. For the king ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel.

I love this because what he just did is he just reinstituted national sacrifice. Because that's what's supposed to take place in the nation. We'll get to personal sacrifice in just a minute. But essentially he's bringing cleansing to the nation. And I want you to notice the response to the cleansing of the nation. He then stationed, verse 25, the Levites in the house of the Lord with symbols,

with harps, with lyres, according to the command of David and of Gad the king's seer and of Nathan the prophet for the command was from the Lord through his prophets. The Levites stood with the musical instruments of David and the priests with the trumpets and then Hezekiah gave the order to offer the burnt offering on the altar and when the burnt offering began the song to the Lord also began with the trumpets accompanied by instruments of David, king of Israel, while the whole assembly, worshiped. The singers also sang and the trumpets sounded. All this continued until the burnt offering was finished.

I love the response to the cleansing. The response to the cleansing was praise to the Lord. And it was the entire assembly that did it. Can we all just agree that the best time of praise is right after we've dealt with the business that needs dealt with with God. Like, so again, sorry to go back to the weekend, it's just, I got to see this fresh in front of my eyes.

So we gather Sunday morning, it's the last chapel. And I mean, all of us people over the age of 25 are exhausted, right? Like, my feet hurt so bad, my body hurt. It's just, I'm too old for some of these things, right? And so, so we're all gathered there. It's Sunday morning, it's the last chapel and we're geeked about the last chapel and the leader of the worship team goes,

okay, let's do something a little different. And when you're an adult at a youth camp, and they say, let's do something a little different, you should automatically get nervous. Okay, just if you ever are an adult at a youth camp, just know that means you're about to be involved in something that you probably don't want to be involved in. Right? And so she says,

can we instead just have all of the huddle leaders and all of the adults up here at the front, because the kids always gather up at the front and they jump around and they act crazy. And it's Saturday night, I was like, I should be up there with them. But Sunday morning, I was like, I should not be up there with them because I just, my body hurts. And so they bring all of us up.

And so, they bring all of us up. And so, we do the crazy song where we spin around and we do all the things and all that kind of fun stuff. But then all these other kids start gathering up around us. And we just sing that song. It's your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise to you. And I stood with all of these kids around me. And I don't care if they were little sixth grade,

obnoxious, stinky kids, or up to like the college kids, some of which could toss me around like a ball. Because they're just large and athletic and strong. Whatever it was, everybody just praising the Lord. And it was at a different level than it was the previous two chapels. And I'll still tell you, the reason why that is, is because kids had dealt with business

in their hearts the night before. And now they were not praising from a place of shame because they were holding on to a lot of stuff. Now they were praising from a place of freedom because they'd let go of a whole lot of things in their lives. And I just thank the Lord because they've never did this. I just thank the Lord. And I just thank the Lord. It's a big one. And a big one.

just loved it had kids messaging me saturday or a sunday night going man was that not a great time of worship of all of us just gathered together pouring out our hearts to the lord these are teenage kids messaging me this and it's because they dealt with what they needed to deal with and brothers and sisters if you want pure praise in your life if you want that in your life it begins with dealing with what needs dealt with with the lord and then all of a sudden you're not held back by anything in your worship any longer amen and so that that national sacrifice led into worship but that worship led into this now at the completion of the burnt offerings the king and all who were present with him bowed down and worshiped moreover king hezekiah and the

officials ordered the levites to sing praises to the lord with the words of david asaph the seer so they sang praises with joy and they bowed down and worshiped and hezekiah said now that you have consecrated yourselves to the lord come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the lord and the assembly brought sacrifices and offerings and all who were willing brought burnt offerings and the number of offerings which the assembly brought was 70 bulls 100 rams 200 lambs and all these were a burnt offering to the lord and the consecrated things were 600 bulls and 3 000 sheep you see national sacrifice led to national worship which then led into personal

sacrifice of the people now all of a sudden this is this is my sacrifice unto the lord remember under jotham their heart was still not pursuing the things of god but now all of a sudden there's a change taking place and now this isn't just what my king is doing this isn't just what the priests are doing this is what i'm doing because now it turned into personal sacrifice to the lord so it says but the priests were too few so they were unable to scan all the burnt offerings therefore their brothers the levites helped them until the work was completed for them the levites were more conscientious to consecrate themselves in the priests there are many burnt offerings with the fat of peace offerings with libations for the burnt

offerings thus the service of the house of the lord was established again and hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what god had prepared for the people because the thing came about suddenly and so we'll close there for tonight but it's fascinating to see what happens under this reign of hezekiah and next week we will continue with all of the other reforms that hezekiah has done. hezekiah is going to bring in his reign among the children of among the children of judah so father we come to you now and lord i thank you for bright spots in your word i thank you for for bright spots and leaders like hezekiah who brought about such reform and and lord i just want to pray now for

all of us that are here lord that that we would deal with the temple of our own hearts lord i i know anytime we we gather as people lord there are still things because we're human and we're flesh dust so we carry things in with us and so lord in the in the temple of our own heart in the temple of the holy spirit that is us lord i pray that we would carry out the unclean things father that you would bring your cleansing to us so that we can respond lord with pure praise unto you so father move in our hearts and in our lives in the way that only your holy spirit can in jesus name amen be blessed