The Unforced Rhythm of Grace and Trust

Introduction

Good morning again everyone.

It is good to see you again.

How was your week?

We will come to our scripture reading shortly.

Slide

Isaiah 37:21–35 NKJV

21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him: “The virgin, the daughter of Zion, Has despised you, laughed you to scorn; The daughter of Jerusalem Has shaken her head behind your back! 23 “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice, And lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. 24 By your servants you have reproached the Lord, And said, ‘By the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, To the limits of Lebanon; I will cut down its tall cedars And its choice cypress trees; I will enter its farthest height, To its fruitful forest. 25 I have dug and drunk water, And with the soles of my feet I have dried up All the brooks of defense.’ 26 “Did you not hear long ago How I made it, From ancient times that I formed it? Now I have brought it to pass, That you should be For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins. 27 Therefore their inhabitants had little power; They were dismayed and confounded; They were as the grass of the field And the green herb, As the grass on the housetops And grain blighted before it is grown. 28 “But I know your dwelling place, Your going out and your coming in, And your rage against Me. 29 Because your rage against Me and your tumult Have come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back By the way which you came.” ’ 30 “This shall be a sign to you: You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, And the second year what springs from the same; Also in the third year sow and reap, Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. 31 And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, And bear fruit upward. 32 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, And those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. 33 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not come into this city, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, By the same shall he return; And he shall not come into this city,’ Says the Lord. 35 ‘For I will defend this city, to save it For My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ”

Is 37:21

Rom 8:35-39

Romans 8:35–39 NKJV

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Our Dog - Toby

Toby was our first dog as a family.

A black lab.

He was given to us as a small puppy.

He bonded with our family very quickly.

Our son and daughter, very young at the time, loved him.

They grew up and He grew up.

We all loved him.

Toby learned to listen to us.

He learned what each word meant .

He even learned to respond to the tome in our voice.

He learned what to do.

“Sit, Stay, Lay down, Come here”

Toby learned to hear our voice and trust us in all situations.

First Home

When we moved house the first time, we were fortunate to a pool.

But Toby did not know what a pool was.

He must of thought he could walk on water.

He learned very quickly not to do that again.

Second Home

When we moved house the second time, we moved into the country, on some acres.

There was no fence on the land.

But Toby learned not to stray too far.

He would be outside most of the time with no lead, but he got to know the boundaries.

Instinctively over time, he learned the boundaries of his life.

He always stayed close to home.

Even the Mail Lady loved our Toby.

They don’t have post boxes in the doors as they do here, rather you put up mail boxes at the end of the driveway.

Every-time the ail Lady came, Toby would walk to her and greet her.

Toby would do the same with the neighbours.

The Mail Lady loved Toby, as did the neighbours.

Toby’s walk got slower and slower.

When Toby eventually died, Norma put out a sign on our mail box so all the neighbours would know.

The Mail Lasy left us a very moving message of sympathy.

Unforced Rhythm of Life

Picture of trust. Picture of a Relationship. Day in, day out. Learned our voice, our tones, how gestures. How to react in a situation, where to go and not to go.

Toby had learned to trust us, to hear our voice, even the tone of our voice, and to respond.

Toby had learned the boundaries of his life

Toby had learned to stay home or very near to home even when not on a leash.

A simple like, a happy life.

There was an unforced rhythm to Toby’s life.

Of trust in us, that showed in all he did.

Day in, day out.

Until the day Toby died.

We as a family still miss our Toby

Spread it before the Lord

Toby. Picture of trust. Picture of a Relationship. Day in, day out. Learned our voice, our tones, how gestures. How to react in a situation, where to go and not to go.

Kika. Opposite.

For those of you who were here a couple of weeks ago,

We finished with Hezekiah and Jerusalem facing the imminent threat of utter destruction from the approach of the vast and ruthless Assyrian army.

an army of at least 186k men!

Judah, and it 46 or so fortified cities, had been mostly decimated as this vast army made its way to the ultimate prize, Jerusalem.

The land, the crops, the fruit trees, had been consumed by this vast army as they went from city to city, and from place to place.

And after receiving “threatening and blasphemous letter” from the King of Assyria, what did Hezekiah do?

He could have bared his teeth at this enemy.

He could have written his own letter of rebuke.

He could have spoke his words of anger,

He could have run for help here and there and everywhere.

He could even have marched out his entire army to war.

But He did not!

He went up to the house of the Lord, that Solomon had built.

He spread the letter from his enemy before the Lord.

And He prayed.

And He waited

The Unforced Rhythm of Grace and Trust

Expectantly.

It is a picture of a of a man who has learned to walk with his God.

It is a picture of a man who has learned to hear the voice of his God.

It is a picture of a of a man who has learned to trust and wait on his God.

It is a picture of a man who had learned to hear the voice of his God

In the best of times and in the worst of times

It is a picture of trust and repose in the Lord, that is very personal.

It is a picture of the unforced rhythm of grace and trust, that should characterise every believer in His or Her walk with the Lord.

In the best of times, and in the worst of times.

It is not forced, it can never be forced.

But it is intentional and an act of the will.

It is walking by Faith.

It is learned and experienced.

And as it is learned and experienced, it grows.

And it takes time!

A lifetime!

That is why I called today’s sermon, “The unforced rhythm of grace and trust”

It is not perfect.

Far from it

But that unforced rhythm of grace and trust is present.

We see that as we look at Hezekiah.

We do not know how long Hezekiah had to wait for an answer to his prayer.

I suggest it is probably weeks rather than days.

The Assyrian Army were still some distance, at Libnah, some 40 miles walk from Jerusalem.

Then there was the threat to the Assyrians from the South, the Egyptians. That had to be deal with that first.

But eventually the vast Assyrian army makes its way up to Jerusalem.

Scripture Reading

We do not know how long Hezekiah had to wait for an answer to his prayer.

I suggested last time it was probably weeks, rather than days.

The Assyrian Army were still some distance, at Lib-nah, some 35-40 walking miles from Jerusalem.

Then there was the threat to the Assyrians from the South, the Egyptian army marching out.

That had to be deal with that first.

But eventually that vast Assyrian army of at least 186k men, makes its way up to Jerusalem.

The final fortified City.

The ultimate prise of conquest.

But then the answer comes to Hezekiah’s prayer.

Scripture Reading

We read in , starting at Verse 21,

Isaiah 37:21–35 NKJV

21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him: “The virgin, the daughter of Zion, Has despised you, laughed you to scorn; The daughter of Jerusalem Has shaken her head behind your back! 23 “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice, And lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. 24 By your servants you have reproached the Lord, And said, ‘By the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, To the limits of Lebanon; I will cut down its tall cedars And its choice cypress trees; I will enter its farthest height, To its fruitful forest. 25 I have dug and drunk water, And with the soles of my feet I have dried up All the brooks of defense.’ 26 “Did you not hear long ago How I made it, From ancient times that I formed it? Now I have brought it to pass, That you should be For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins. 27 Therefore their inhabitants had little power; They were dismayed and confounded; They were as the grass of the field And the green herb, As the grass on the housetops And grain blighted before it is grown. 28 “But I know your dwelling place, Your going out and your coming in, And your rage against Me. 29 Because your rage against Me and your tumult Have come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back By the way which you came.” ’ 30 “This shall be a sign to you: You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, And the second year what springs from the same; Also in the third year sow and reap, Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. 31 And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, And bear fruit upward. 32 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, And those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. 33 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not come into this city, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, By the same shall he return; And he shall not come into this city,’ Says the Lord. 35 ‘For I will defend this city, to save it For My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ”

Is 37:

What an answer to prayer!

Blank Slide

Hezekiah’s Jerusalem

We do not know how long Hezekiah had to wait for an answer to his prayer.

I suggest it is probably weeks rather than days.

The Assyrian Army were still some distance, at Libnah, some 40 miles walk from Jerusalem.

Then there was the threat to the Assyrians from the South, the Egyptians. That had to be deal with that first.

But eventually the vast Assyrian army makes its way up to Jerusalem.

Improvements made to Jerusalem under Hezekiah

Jerusalem sits on a hill.

It is good to pause a while and think about what Jerusalem was like at the time of Hezekiah.

It is true that Hezekiah had some years to prepare for the invasion of the Assyrians.

It should not have been a complete surprise.

Assyria had already overrun and taken into exile Northern Israel.

That left Judah alone, which then formed an alliance with Assyria in the time of Hezekiah’s Father, King A-haz.

which formed an alliance with Assyria in the time of Hezekiah’s Father, King Ahaz.

But we are told in , about Hezekiah,

In one sense he knew it was coming.

We are told in ,

Slide

2 Kings 18:7–8 NKJV

7 The Lord was with him; he prospered wherever he went. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8 He subdued the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.

So Hezekiah rebelled against Assyria.

He must have known an invasion was very likely as a consequence.

He had around 4 years to prepare.

So what did he do?

Fortified key Cities of Judah.

Hezekiah fortified key cities of Judah.

Lachish being a key one as it guarded the way up to Jerusalem from the west.

But it was to no avail.

Last week, we read,

Slide

Isaiah 37:8 NKJV

8 Then the Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish.

Departed and victorious over Lachish.

Warning now against Lib-nah.

Clearing the way to Jerusalem.

That must have shattered Hezekiah confidence in all the preparations that had been made..

Fortified Jerusalem

Hezekiah also fortified Jerusalem.

We read in,

Slide

2 Chronicles 32:5 NKJV

5 And he strengthened himself, built up all the wall that was broken, raised it up to the towers, and built another wall outside; also he repaired the Millo in the City of David, and made weapons and shields in abundance.

Millo is a fort.

Slide

Hezekiah’s Wall

Slide

That other wall, is thought to be what was called Hezekiah’s wall.

Show on slide

Also called the Broad wall, in Nehemiah.

The width was around 21 Feet.

There are still parts of it left today.

It extended Jerusalem to the West.

A place of refuge for the many refugees as the Assyrians left a path of destruction on their way up to Jerusalem.

Hezekiah’s Tunnel

Hezekiah also build a water tunnel to secure the water source for the city.

Slide

2 Kings 20:20 NKJV

20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah—all his might, and how he made a pool and a tunnel and brought water into the city—are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

This brought water from the Gihon spring and pool via a set of tunnels to the Pool of Siloam.

All within the protection of the city walls.

I was fortunate a few years back to actually walk some of those tunnels, which are open to visitors.

Even today it is considered a feet of engineering.

Prepared and Trusting in God

Hezekiah demonstrated that “unforced rhythm of grace and trust” in all these preparations.

Then as that Assyrian invasion became a reality, and as he saw his preparations outside of Jerusalem destroyed, he went to his God.

The Lord can, in His mercy, send us good, and the Lord can, in His mercy, send us or allow, adversity.

The the Lord has shaped our lives, our circumstances , our past, present the people we are with.

What should mark the follower of Jesus, what Jesus wants us to learn, is that unforced rhythm of grace and trust of Him, whatever the outward circumstances.

And that is difficult!

It is something that only comes over time,.

In one sense it can not be taught, i it is of the heart, and has to be learned and experienced.

It is,

Matthew 11:28 NKJV

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Good he sends us, adversity he send us.

The Robin and the Sparrow

The Robin is my favorite bird.

Even from my childhood.

We have a couple that inhabit our garden presently.

I love to watch them.

They remind me of my childhood and winter days, with their shinny red breasts.

Do you know that little Poem?

And this little poem,

Said the Robin to the Sparrow, I would really like to know, why these anxious human beings, run around and worry so.

Said the Sparrow to the Robin, oh I think it must be, that they have no heavenly father, such that cares for you and me.

We have to learn his unforced rhyhmn of grace and trust in our lives.

Lifetime Learning

Are we learning to hear our Heavenly Father’s voice?

Or are we running too and fro, and all over the place in the face of trouble?

That cares for such as you and me.

It is a lifelong learning.

Are we learning That our Heavenly Father cares for such as you and me.

In the small details, as well as the weightier ones.

Are we learning to wait upon our Heavenly Father and not rush ahead of Him?

It is a lifelong process, often marked by mistakes, to teach us.

It is not “Woe is you”, or “do, do, do” or even a set of head doctrines or creed.

But It is a life characterised by the far more weightier matters of humility, mercy, grace and justice.

It is,

Matthew 11:28 NKJV

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

And that then affects all we are and all we do.

It is a life time of learning, one day at a time.

There is no short cut.

The Lord’s Answer to Hezekiah’s Prayer

We already read the answer to Hezekiah’s prayer, through the Prophet Isaiah.

What an answer it is!

It is your homework, please read it again.

Emphasis

But note!!!!!!!, there is no “How” in it.

“How” the deliverance with come.

There is the promise of deliverance, but no how!

We read the “How” in .

And what reading that is.

I believe it happened very quickly after the word from the Prophet Isaiah.

It means the Assyrian army had arrived and surrounded Jerusalem at that time.

Again, your home work, please read it

Trusting the Lord with the Hows

Can we trust the Lord with the Hows?

We wants the Hows.

From whatever we are or will face?

But the Lord wants,

Without all the Hows?

“The unforced rhythm of grace and trust”

We shall Overcome vs God shall Overcome

I finish with this

Slide

This is the Rev. Dr. Charles Albert Tindley

He was born July 7, 1851, and died July 26, 1933

An American Methodist minister.

A gospel music-composer.

In his day he was called "The Prince of Preachers".

He educated himself, became a minister and founded one of the largest Methodist congregations serving the African-American community on the East Coast of the United States.

His father was a slave, but his mother was free.

Author: Charles Albert Tindley (1900)

I'll overcome someday

He composed the hymn, “I'll overcome someday”

It became the basis for the song we hear today from so many protest movements

Adaptation of His Hymn

It became the basis for the song we hear today from so many protest movements.

Or even at public concerts, with people hand in hand.

We shall overcome, We shall overcome, We shall overcome, some day.

But there is a big problem.

God has been removed from it, like He has from so many things.

. I’ll overcome some day, I’ll overcome some day;

It is all about us and what we can do.

It is the boast of the King of Assyria.

That Isaiah quotes in the answer to Hezekiah’s prayer.

And he had to be humbled.

It is that boast that is at the heart of today’s paradigm.

And it is a lie.

The True Hymn

It is good to go back to Tindley’s hymn

And look at his words, that have been lost in what is sung today.

1 The world is one great battlefield, With forces all arrayed; If in my heart I do not yield, I'll overcome some day.

2 Both seen and unseen powers join To drive my soul astray, But with God's Word a sword of mine, I’ll overcome some day. I’ll overcome some day, I’ll overcome some day; But with God's Word a sword of mine, I’ll overcome some day.

3 A thousand snares are set for me, And mountains in my way; If Jesus will my leader be, I’ll overcome some day. I’ll overcome some day, I’ll overcome some day; If Jesus will my leader be, I’ll overcome some day.

“The unforced rhythm of grace and trust”!

We shall overcome. Today, with God stripped out, vs the original. 

Romans 8:35–39 NKJV

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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