Live For Days You Cannot See

Life of the Church

Good morning everyone and welcome, it’s good to see you all here for our worship service.

I have a few announcements to mention that are included in your bulletins.

The men’s group will be meeting tonight at 6:30.

Our church will be helping out with some stocking, straightening, and sorting at The Gathering Place next Saturday the 19th from 10 until noon. If you can make that, please let Della or Sandy know.

A new school year has started, and we are once again supporting Stump Elementary’s Weekday Religious Education program by providing some small wrapped treats, as well as small trinkets and markers. If you can provide some of those, please leave them in Randal’s classroom or see Della.

I received a message this morning from Judy Smith saying that her step-father has had a stroke and is in the hospital. His name is Conrad Guthrie. Please be in prayer for Conrad, Judy, and their family.

Jesyka, do you have anything this morning?

Let’s begin our service as Brenda brings our prelude.

Opening Prayer

Let’s pray:

Father we come to you this morning as worshippers of your power, your majesty, and your grace, knowing that by your eternal decree you chose each of us to partake in a kingdom founded by your son that will never fade and never perish.

We come to you this morning as disciples of your truth and your love, knowing that the mercy given to us is a mercy we should show others, and that the way that was once pointed to us is the way we should now point others toward as well.

And we come to you this morning, Father, as workers searching for your will for our lives and as servants eager to fulfill the holy purpose you have set down for each of us here. Let that will be made known to us in how best we can serve you, serve this church, and serve this community. For it’s in Jesus’s name we ask these things, Amen.

Sermon

From the very beginning, there has always been a struggle of keeping the sins of the world away from the church. No matter how hard the church tries to keep itself clean, the sins of this world will always enter in.

And it almost has to be that way, doesn’t it? Because after all, the church is made up of forgiven people, people under grace, but also fallen people who are still under the grip of sin. And so whatever of the world’s mud we collect out there during the week is bound to get tracked in some measure into every church come Sunday. It’s always been that way, and always will.

That’s why we always have to be vigilant with ourselves. We have to be aware of what the devil’s whispering, what society’s saying, and what our own selfish desires are trying to get us to do.

Over and over in the New Testament, the Apostles say we always have to pay careful attention to what we’re doing and saying and thinking. Peter says in 1 Peter 1:13 to always be sober-minded — to be calm and collected. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16:12 to always be watchful to be alert. Pay attention to every little thing, and make sure you’re staying in line with what God says.

We had a revival here a couple weeks ago, and all the pastors called it a “community” revival, a revival for our town. But the truth is that we all considered it as a revival for the church first, because any revival is always going to start there, with the people who are God’s people.

And the reason the church as a whole needs revival now is largely because its people are every bit as afflicted and overcome by the same sins that have overcome so many in today’s world, and today we’re going to talk about three of the most common: the temptations of vanity, worldliness, and selfishness.

Sadly, those sins have always been a parts of life. As proof of that, today we’re going to go back thousands of years to the rule of Israel’s kings and the book of 2 Kings, chapter 20, verses 12-19.

From the time of Abraham, God had set apart one people He would call his own — the Israelites. He set them free from slavery in Egypt, led them to the Promised Land, and established them as a nation unlike any other. They would have no king because God would be their king.

But not even God wasn’t good enough for them. In the end, Israel wanted to be like everyone else — they wanted a king that was like them. And so God eventually said, “Fine, have it your way. If you choose to be ruled by human kings, I’ll honor that.”

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that most of those kings were pretty terrible. A few stood out as good, godly, and honorable people. David was first on that list. And so was the king we’re talking about today, Hezekiah.

Hezekiah was the son of a wicked King named Ahaz. He reigned for twenty-nine years starting at age 25, and 2 Chronicles 31:20 describes him as doing “what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God. And every work that he undertook in the service of the ouse of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments, seeking his God, he did with all his heart, and he prospered.”

A righteous man. A good child of God. That’s Hezekiah. But the devil’s always lurking, isn’t he? Peter says he prowls like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. And here beginning in verse 12, he finds the good king Hezekiah. Let’s read 2 Kings chapter 20, verses 12-19:

12 At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

13 And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.

14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.”

15 He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord:

17 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord.

18 And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”

And this is God’s word.

There are a lot of people who say the Bible isn’t relevant anymore. It was written thousands of years ago by people in another age and another culture. The world’s changed so much that people from back then would never understand people like us. We know more. We’ve grown more. We’re capable of more.

But what these people don’t understand is that the times always change, but people never do. Our scripture today is just more proof of that. I said earlier that the greatest sins of the modern age are vanity, worldliness, and selfishness. Those are exactly the three sins that Hezekiah, the man of God, falls for right here. Let’s look at each of them.

First, Hezekiah commits the sin of vanity. Here’s a little background to what’s happening in these verses. Back at the start of verse 20, Hezekiah becomes sick. We’re not told what sort of sickness it is, but it’s serious, and the prophet Isaiah comes to him and says, “God’s said to set your house in order, because you’re going to die.”

Hezekiah, though, prays and says, “O Lord, please remember how I’ve always walked before you in faithfulness with my whole heart, and I’ve always done what’s good in your sight.”

So God comes back to Isaiah again and says, “Tell Hezekiah that I’ve heard his prayer and I’ve seen his tears, so I’m giving him fifteen more years of life.” And Hezekiah is healed.

That’s where we pick up here in verse 12. A group of emissaries from the king of Babylon is sent to Israel on what amounts to a diplomatic mission. The king wants to congratulate Hezekiah on being made well and sends a gift. He has a message for Hezekiah, congratulating him on his wonderful healing, telling Hezekiah that he’s held in such high esteem among the nations. And Hezekiah swallows every bit of it, hook, line, and sinker.

The real reason these men were sent to Hezekiah is that the king of Babylon wants to get a peek at how strong Israel is as a nation — how many resources they have, how big their army is, and especially how much wealth Hezekiah has at his disposal. Babylon’s king wants to know these things because he’s looking for an alliance. He wants Israel to join forces with him against their shared enemy, the Assyrians, who at that time was the largest and most powerful kingdom in the world.

Hezekiah can’t see any of that though, and do you know why? It’s not because he’s dumb. Hezekiah’s in fact very wise. Not because these messengers from Babylon are good at being sneaky. No, Hezekiah falls for it because he’s being flattered. Hezekiah has given himself over to vanity.

He’s thinking, “Look how important these people think I am. Look how powerful they say I am. The King of Babylon has sent these men all the way here just for me. He’s written me a letter. He’s given me a gift. He king of the world’s wealthiest and most famous city is telling me how famous I am. Here the entire known world is jealous of Babylon’s wealth and prestige, but Babylon’s king wants to get in good with me.”

One of our deepest needs as human beings is to be accepted and valued. Anyone who says, “I don’t care what other people think of me” is either trying to fool you or themselves, because we all care what others think of us, and we care a great deal that others think highly of us. That in itself is a good thing. We should want to be known as good and kind and loving, the sort of people who make others feel better. But just like every temptation, this one starts out with good intentions but ends up in a place of darkness.

All of a sudden — and you can see this plainly in verse 13 — Hezekiah falls into the trap of thinking that his worth as a person depends on what the king of Babylon thinks of him. Hezekiah gives in to his vanity. He think he’s pretty great because Babylon thinks he’s pretty great. Hezekiah thinks he’s great because he’s a king and he has all this stuff.

When we start thinking that we’re special because of the things we own, or the job we have, or because everyone else says we’re special, we give in to vanity just like Hezekiah did. And vanity is dangerous because it can so easily lead to what the Bible considers the original and even the worst sin — pride. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves. Vanity relates more to what we want others to think of us. Both are dangerous to the soul because both put ourselves above God.

Your value doesn’t come from what you have, because everything you have comes from God. Your value doesn’t come from who other people say you are, it comes from who God says you are. That’s why vanity and pride is so dangerous, because they say, “Look at me,” instead of “Look at what God can do in me.”

And Hezekiah’s fallen for that. This man of God, this righteous king. All it takes for him to get into trouble is a present and a letter delivered by strangers. It starts with falling for the temptation of vanity. But that’s not where it ends, because now Hezekiah gives in to the next great temptation of our modern times, and that’s worldliness.

Look at verse 13. Hezekiah welcomes this delegation from Babylon — nothing at all wrong with that. As Christians, we should always be welcoming to everyone, no matter who they are. But then he gets into even more trouble.

My translation, the ESV, has verse 13 saying that Hezekiah “welcomed” these envoys. The NIV says Hezekiah “received” them. The King James says Hezekiah “harkened unto” them, and that’s probably the best translation of that Hebrew word, because the Hebrew means that Hezekiah was “dazzled” by what these men said. What these men said made Hezekiah feel so good about himself that now he’ll do anything to hear more. He wants to give Babylon’s king even more reason to think he’s great, and so verse 13 says he shows these envoys “all that was found in his storehouses.”

“Look at all my stuff,” Hezekiah says. “Isn’t it great? Aren’t I great because I have all this stuff? Go tell the king about all my stuff, and he’ll like me even more. He’ll want to be friends with me even more. Look at all this silver, all this gold. Look at these spices. Smell all this precious oil. Look at all the weapons of war we have. You want Israel to join Babylon in destroying the Assyrians? I’m all in. You think Israel is on the same level as Babylon? Let’s be partners.”

Now, there is so much wrong with what Hezekiah’s thinking, and worse — Hezekiah knows it. The Assyrians have been trying to overtake Israel for years. The Assyrians have a mighty empire; Israel is a small kingdom. The Assyrians have more soldiers, more money, more power, and from the very beginning, Hezekiah wanted to bring in other nations to help fight off the Assyrians. He tried the Egyptians first. But God had spoken through the prophet Isaiah and said it plainly — don’t trust in other nations, trust in me. The Assyrians might have greater armies, but you have me. Listen to what God says in Isaiah 30, verse 1:

“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin.”

God has made it plain to Hezekiah what he wants, but Hezekiah doesn’t listen because of his vanity and pride in verse 12, and because of the sin of worldliness here in verse 13 — not trusting God, but trusting in the things of his world, in his silver and gold and riches and swords, and in the Babylonians.

And we know this not just because of what verse 13 says, but because of what it doesn’t say. Verse 13 says, “There was nothing in his house in in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.” There was no limit to what Hezekiah’s pride wouldn’t let him show these men from Babylon, but there’s one important thing he doesn’t show them.

Hezekiah never mentions the one who was responsible for Israel’s success, or its safety, or its riches. He never mentions the one who had miraculously healed him of his sickness. Hezekiah is so wrapped up in himself that he never, not once, mentions God. And we have to think that he never mentions God because he’s not even thinking about God.

But now we come to verse 14. Isaiah arrives, the mighty prophet. Hezekiah’s lost himself in his pride and vanity. He thinks his wealth and friendships are going to keep Israel safe from the Assyrians. But the moment he sees Isaiah, all of that goes away. When a prophet came into the king’s presence without being summoned, you can bet it was because the king was in trouble with God. The king is about to be reminded of who’s really in charge, and it’s not him.

Look at the way Isaiah talks to him. “What did these men say?” he asks. “Where did they come from?”

Two things I want to mention: First, do you think there is any other person in the kingdom who can talk to the king like? No way. Just Isaiah. And why? Because Isaiah speaks for God. Second, does Isaiah not know what these envoys said or where they came from? Of course he knows. He just needs Hezekiah to confess it.

Hezekiah’s not around the Babylonians right now — maybe they’ve left, maybe they’re just resting for the night. He doesn’t hear all that flattering, and now Hezekiah understands he’s screwed up.

We know that because he doesn’t answer Isaiah’s first question — “What did these men say?” He’s not going to tell Isaiah that the Babylonians want an alliance, because Hezekiah knows that goes against what God has already said. Instead, Hezekiah only answers the second question — “And from where did they come to you?”

So he tells Isaiah, “They’ve come from a far country” — and you can hear the pride in that, can’t you? My fame has reached far beyond this land, Isaiah. “They’ve come from Babylon.”

Isaiah says in verse 15, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah says, “Everything.” He just says it flat out. He’s not going to hide it. Either Hezekiah isn’t ashamed of what he’s done, or he realizes there’s no use in lying because God already knows.

And now, starting in verse 16 and carrying through verse 18, Isaiah delivers God’s judgment for Hezekiah’s vanity and his trust in worldly things rather than God’s provision.

Isaiah begins by saying in verse 16, “Hear the word of the Lord … ” That’s a common thing prophets say when they’re about to deliver a condemnation. “You let your pride take over when those messengers stroked your ego. You paraded them through all the riches God has given you so you could secure Babylon’s friendship instead of putting your trust in the Lord. So because of that, God’s going to give you over to Babylon. You trusted in their friendship more than the Lord, now Babylon will rule over you.”

“All those treasures you trust in,” Isaiah says, “will be carried away from here. There’ll be nothing left. More than that, your own grandchildren will be taken away. They won’t have any wealth. They won’t have any power. You might rule here in Israel, Hezekiah, but your descendants will be servants and slaves in Babylon.”

It’s like steps that Hezekiah is descending down one by one until he reaches the basement of his heart. First he allowed himself to be flattered into the sin of vanity. And because of his vanity, he began trusting worldly things instead of God. And it’s because Hezekiah trusted worldly things instead of God that he commits maybe the worst sin of all, which just so happens to be the most common sin in this world right now. He became selfish.

Look at verse 19, and look at the difference between what Hezekiah says and what he thinks. He says, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” I accept God’s judgment, Isaiah, because I know the Lord is just.

But what does Hezekiah think? “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?” Here’s what that means: So God says that Israel is going to crumble. The kingdom will be destroyed and the people will be carried away to a foreign land. All this treasure won’t be ours anymore, it will be Babylon’s, and my grandchildren will be slaves. But I’m going to be okay. I’m going to stay king. I’m going to remain comfortable, and all this bad stuff that’s going to happen will happen after I die? Cool. Cool, cool, cool. I’m good with that.

I’ll ask you what’s more shocking — that Hezekiah, a righteous king of Israel, would say something as selfish as that, or that this man who lived thousands of years ago would say something so similar to what most people think today.

Hezekiah doesn’t care about what’s going to happen to his grandchildren. He doesn’t care that Babylon is going to rise up and destroy Jerusalem and carry most of the entire nation into exile. Because that’s a long way off, and he won’t be around to see any of it.

The only thing that matters to Hezekiah is that he gets to stay king. The only thing that matters to Hezekiah is that he gets to keep all his stuff, and all his power, and all his comfort. The only thing that matters to Hezekiah is himself. And of all his sins in this passage — the vanity, the pride, the refusal to listen to God’s instruction — it’s his selfishness that’s the worst. And that is exactly the poison that’s infecting not just our modern society, but our churches as well.

Over and over in scripture, God says the first duty of his people is to love him and him alone, and the second duty is to teach their children to do the same. Every generation has to train up the next by passing on their wisdom and knowledge, because not doing that, neglecting that, is the surest way for faith and truth and knowledge to die.

Turn with me very quickly to Psalm 78. Psalm 78 puts into focus this principle of living our lives by thinking of those who will come after us. I want to read verses 1-8:

78:1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;

incline your ears to the words of my mouth!

2 I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will utter dark sayings from of old, [“dark sayings” are riddles that were used to teach, like the parables that Jesus used.]

3 things that we have heard and known,

that our fathers have told us. [So these truths of God that the people know were taught to them by the generation before them. And now they must pass those truths on to the next generation, which is what’s said in verse 4.]

4 We will not hide them from their children,

but tell to the coming generation

the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,

and the wonders that he has done.

5 He established a testimony in Jacob

and appointed a law in Israel,

which [pay attention to this] he commanded our fathers

to teach to their children,

6 that the next generation might know them,

the children yet unborn,

and arise and tell them to their children,

7 so that they should set their hope in God

and not forget the works of God,

but keep his commandments;

8 and that they should not be like their fathers,

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation whose heart was not steadfast,

whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Wouldn’t you call this generation stubborn and rebellious? Would you say the heart of this generation isn’t steadfast? That this generation doesn’t have a spirit that’s faithful to God? I’d answer yes to all of that, and do you know why? Because we only worry about ourselves. We’re the only ones that matter. We’re just like Hezekiah — As long as I’m okay, as long as I’m doing good, that’s all that matters. Let all those other people worry about themselves. I gotta worry about me and my own family.

People blame social media for this, and social media deserves a lot of that blame, but this attitude has overtaken our country since at least the 1960s. That’s when people started saying that we shouldn’t be working for and building up our society, we should be working for and building up ourselves. It’s the individual that matters. It’s the person. It’s me. I’m the most important thing. Which goes against everything that’s taught in Psalm 78.

For thousands of years, society lived by the principle that the highest ideal a person could have was to provide for the ones who come after. The best thing someone could do was to plant a tree whose shade their grandchildren could rest under. But nowadays, people will say, “What’s planting a tree going to do for me? I can’t enjoy it. I get nothing out of that but work, and I already have too much work. I’m too busy living my own life to think about people who aren’t even born yet.”

And we cannot live like that anymore. Our families and our churches desperately need leaders who live for the prosperity of days they’ll never see. We need people who will sacrifice for the people coming after them, because that’s how we got here. Our generation can enjoy the blessings we have in this church because of the service given to it by all the generations past.

The people of the Bible saw themselves as branches on a tree that had roots stretching farther than memory, and limbs that would keep growing long after they were gone. Too many people nowadays see themselves as plants with roots that start at their birth and fruit that will die when they die. We can almost understand that sort of thinking in people who don’t believe in God; they just don’t know any better. But the church of Christ can’t continue on like that, or else it’s going to keep growing smaller and smaller.

That’s why it is so important for every single believer in this nation to start thinking of the generation that’s going to follow them.

Think of the people in your own churches who’ve gone on to their reward just recently. People who weren’t just a vital part in the history of our community, but of our churches. Thankfully, you probably have plenty of other pillars still standing. God hasn’t called them home yet. But who’s going to stand up for God and take their place? What work will you do now that points the next generation to your Lord? That makes their faith stronger?

You will stand before God as an individual who will be judged on an individual life, but part of that judgment will be what you did or didn’t do that strengthened the Christian faith for those who came after you.

If we say to God then, “Well, I was just so busy at work,” God’s going to point to all those saints who came before you and say they were busy too, but they still made time to serve their Lord.

If we say to God, “Well I didn’t have any gifts to offer anybody,” God’s going to say you’re just like the man who was too afraid to invest the talent that was given to him, so he buried it in the ground. For that, his master called him a wicked and slothful servant.

If we say to God, “Well I was just too old to be of use to anybody,” God’s going to tell you that he still had a purpose for you to fulfill, and that you should have known that because he hadn’t called you home yet, and as long as you have breath, God says you have a purpose.

As Christians, all of us, no matter who we are, carry a stone. That stone is made of your love for God and your love for others, and it has only one purpose. That stone is for you to lay down at the end of your life next to or on top of the ones left by those who have gone on before you, so that together we can build a staircase that leads our children and grandchildren straight to God.

Let’s pray:

Father we are so thankful for the many blessings we enjoy, and we praise you that so many of these blessings originated from your hand but were given to us through the work of those who came before. Give us the eyes of faith to look past the small circle of our own lives to the wider circle of others. Help us to see that we must lay our own stones upon the staircase you are building to lead our children and grandchildren closer to you. Let each of us ask what our task is in standing in the breach for your kingdom, and let our will be yours. For we ask this in Christ’s name, Amen.

Our hymn of response this morning is “Trust and Obey”. Will you please stand.