Sermon # 2: Prayer Confidence Level "Going with Your God Instead of Your Gut" 2 Kings 18:26-19:36 By Samuel E. Ward Introduction In our previous study of 1 Kings 18, we introduced the idea that all of us have a certain faith tolerance, i.e., how far will we go with God until we begin to doubt His ways and seek our own solutions to problems. Fear of what the king of Assyria might do to Judah if he did not submit, Hezekiah sought to appease him by giving away the treasures of the Temple. Much to Hezekiah's dismay, Assyria was not satisfied with this only and was looking to conquer and take the whole land as its own just as it had done in the kingdoms surrounding Judah. The crisis had escalated, the Assyrians were at Jerusalem's doorstep demanding surrender, the people were in fear of their very lives. Hezekiah must choose between his God or the enemy. Is God strong enough to defeat king Sennacherib. No other gods had been able to deliver their peoples from the advance of Assyria. We are about to see what appears to be a courageous act performed in the midst of panic. Observe Hezekiah as he discovers his Prayer Confidence Level. How much trust does He have in God? Will he go with God or with his gut? I. The Presence of a Crisis: The Threat to God's People, 2 Kings 18:26-36 A. The Enemy's Goal Is to Destroy God's People. B. The Enemy's Methods Include Intimidation and Threats. The enemy's ploys: 1. Undermine the Leadership, 2 Kings 18:26-27.
27But the commander replied, "Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine?" 2. Undermine the Lord, 2 Kings 18:28:28-36.
31"Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, 32until I come and take you to a land like your own, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death! "Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, 'The LORD will deliver us.' 33Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 35Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?" 36But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, "Do not answer him." II. The Initial Reaction: Panic, 2 Kings 18:37-19:1-4 A. The Leadership Panics Before the King, 2 Kings 18:37.
B. The King Panics Before the Lord, 2 Kings 19:1 2 Kings 19:1 (NIV) 1When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD. C. The Leader Seeks Intercessory Prayer from a Man of God, 2 Kings 19:2-4. 1. The Need Expressed, 2 Kings 19:2-3
2. The Answer Desired, 2 Kings 19:4 a. The enemy will be rebuked for his blasphemy, 2 Kings 4a.
b. The remnant of God's people will survive, 2 Kings 19:4b. 2 Kings 19:4b (NIV)Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives." III. The Message of Hope, 2 Kings 19:5-7
A. When the Lord is with you, there's no need to fear. God will defend His Name, 2 Kings 19:6b.
B. When the Lord is with you, the miraculous can happen. The inevitable is always avoidable, 2 Kings 19:7a.
C. When the Lord is with you, the enemy will be defeated, 2 Kings 19:7b. 2 Kings 19:7b (NIV) . . .and there I will have him cut down with the sword.'" IV. The Challenge to Hope, 2 Kings 19:8-13. A. The Enemy May Depart, But He Reserves the Right to Return, 2 Kings 19:8-10.
9Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the Cushite£ king _of Egypt_, was marching out to fight against him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: 10"Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, 'Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.' B. The Enemy Often Seeks to Leave a Seed of Doubt in God's Promises, 2 Kings 19:11-13.
2. The enemy asks, "Did any gods deliver them?", 2 Kings 19:12.
3. The enemy boasts, "Where are the leaders who have stood in my path?", 2 Kings 19:13.
V. The Casting of Care upon God, 2 Kings 19:14-19 A. Leadership Looks to God for Help Against the Enemy, 2 Kings 19:14.
B. Leadership Acknowledges God's Sovereignty over the Enemy,
C. Leadership Does Not Underestimate the Power of the Enemy,
D. Leadership Desires that the True God Be Known, 2 Kings 19:19.
VI. The Case Against Assyria, 2 Kings 19:20-24
A. The Mocked Ones Will Become the Mockers, 2 Kings 19:21b 2 Kings 19: 21b (NIV) 21b "'The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you. The Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. B. The Holy One Has Been Insulted, 2 Kings 19:22 22 Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! C. The Arrogant Ones Have Condemned Themselves, 2 Kings 19:23-24. 23 By your messengers you have heaped insults on the Lord. And you have said, "With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines. I have reached its remotest parts, the finest of its forests. 24 I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt." VII. The Promises of God to Assyria and His People, 2 Kings 19:25-36 A. The Promises of God to Assyria, 2 Kings 19:25-28 1. You will only do what God allows you to do, 2 Kings 19:25-26. 2 Kings 19:25-26 (NIV) 25 "'Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone. 26 Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up. 2. You will be humbled as you have humbled others, 2 Kings 19:27-28 a. You can run, but you can't hide, 2 Kings 19:27.
27 "'But I know where you stay and when you come and go and how you rage against me. b. You will be brought low for your insolence, 1 Kings 19:28.
and your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.' B. The Promises of God to His People, 2 Kings 19:29-34. 1. I will have completely restored you in three years2 Kings 19:29.
29"This will be the sign for you, O Hezekiah: "This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 2. I will have kept my promise to preserve you, 2 Kings 19:30-31.
30 Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. 31 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. 3. I will deal with the king of Assyria, 2 Kings 19:32-33.
"He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. 33 By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the LORD. 4. I will save this city for my sake and David's, 2 Kings 19:34. C. The Promises of God to His Enemy and His People Fulfilled,
Application What is your Prayer Confidence Level? 1. All too often it seems that prayer is the last resort in our approach to the things that bother or concern us when it ought to be first. If it is anything but first, it is more likely that our first reaction to a problem will be the wrong one. 2. Concerning wrong first reactions, a. We should take Jesus' counsel to be ready when trouble unexpectedly falls upon us, Matt 26:41.
Peter's first reaction was to cut off an ear! b. First reactions can be so destructive that we may not recover from them, especially when the reaction is anger, James 1:19-20.
3. Resist the temptation to give in to the devil's schemes to cause you fall. Pray to see the escape God has promised to reveal, 1 Cor 10:12-13.
4. Do not fear men but rather obey God. The worst men can do is kill the body. Pray for courage to stand. God can be exalted by preserving our earthly life, or using our deaths to draw others to Himself, Phil 1:19-21.
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Sunday, October 5, 2008
Hezekiah
