Taking God's promises for Granted.
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He is eternal
He is eternal
God is eternal and so is everything about Him is eternal.
His love is eternal and His word, promises are eternal and ever lasting. We can always rest in the imutabtility of God, the unchanging nature of God. Why because they are eternal.
Have you ever gone through one of those seasons when it just seems like your life is falling apart and you can't figure out why? now a lot of times we find ourselves in some kind of trouble or facing some kind of challenge and if we are honest sometimes we go through what we go through due to some dumb decisions and we can point to something that say this is or was the reason. Thwn there are other times when bad things happen for no good reason? you know what I'm talking about ? when bad happen for no good reason.
you've been behaving yourself, you're trying to do all the right things you're trying to live your life the way the Lord wants you to live.
There are seasons when you are doing all the right thing you're following the Lord and something bad happens
and you go I don't get this God why did this happen
o why are you allowing this
o where are you in all of this don't you even care
o what's happening and if you're in one of those seasons
But if you're in one of those seasons of, life one of those times when you're challenged by something, and you may be afraid of what's going on and you're saying I need some hope well that's what I want to talk about, the God gives us hope.
I believe that this message is a message of hope for you, we're going to look at one main verse
it's a promise that God gave to someone that has filled with hope so we're going to look at that verse and
then we're going to look at the story look at the context in which that verse was given in Scripture because it's important for us to look at the context of things otherwise, we take things out of context. we have always said here context is king. Have you ever had an experience when someone took you our of context, you were communicating something but the other person heard or preceived something else, did you like it. I don’t think God likes it either when we take what He is saying out of context and build theology around it to justify our position. So if you remove you “Text” from the Word Context you are left with Word CON, meaning of word is to cheat, defraud or deceive you. There are many times we have been taught out of context that have robbed us from true freedom that truth is design to bring in our lives.
So look at todays anchoring verse from Isaiah.
Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, And the strength of salvation; The fear of the Lord is His treasure.
Some version says Foundation instead of stability
we need to look at what's the background to this promise how does this apply to our life now. I will repeat myself
because sometimes we need to hear something more than once to really let it sink in.
The Bible says the Lord will be the sure foundation for your times a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure now this verse was a promise that was given to a good man who was going through a bad time the man's name was Hezekiah
And he was the king of the southern kingdom of Israel the kingdom of Judah and he was a man who was doing all of the right things in the right way before God and yet he found himself under assault from an enemy who was way too powerful for him to handle on his own and so Hezekiah found himself facing a crisis not just a personal crisis of his own leadership it was a national crisis the fate of his people was in his hands the weight of the world
was sitting on his shoulders and if he made one mistake one misstep it was all over we read about this man and we find out that he was one of the great kings of Israel now the Bible tells us when we read in the books of
1st and 2nd kings and 1st and 2nd chronicles.
What you see when you read the history of in these two books is this
· One guy was a good king and then the next guy was a bad king and then the
· next guy was a good king and then here came a bad king and they just kind of
· went in cycles but in this case, Hezekiah was one of the good guys he became king when he was 25 years old
· you imagine being 25 years old and you're king of a nation and in his very first year as king he led the whole nation in a spiritual revival they turned their hearts back to the Lord they got rid of their idols that got rid of false worship and they turned their hearts to God in fact the Bible says that he led a Passover celebration unlike anything they had seen for 250 years so Hezekiah was one of the good guys
· I want us to look at a passage that that describes something about his life
Here what what the Bible says in
2 Kings 18:5–7 (NKJV)
He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses. The Lord was with him; he prospered wherever he went.
Hezekiah trusted in the Lord the God of Israel there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah either before him or after him he held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses and the Lord was with him he was successful in whatever he undertook.
When we that kind of a life description and you think that sounds like a good life that sounds like the kind of person I would want to be someone who everything I undertook I was successful in because God was blessing me that sounds like a model for Christian living it sounds like the kind of life that should be free from trouble
But look at this next verse
After these acts of faithfulness Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and besieged the fortified cities, and thought to break into them for himself.
After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully. done Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah
Let’s talk about Sennacherib for a moment here, Sennacherib was the dominant world leader of his day and Assyria was the dominant world power and the Assyrians were in the process of conquering all of the surrounding nations and what they did when they moved in and took over a country they didn't just occupy that
country they took all of the people out of that country and scattered them about in their empire
· so it took people's national identity away
· and the Assyrians were now threatening to do the same thing to the kingdom of Judah
Now we see often in Scripture that when God's people disobeyed him that he would allow their enemies to rise up and come against them because he was trying to get the people to turn their hearts back to God but in this case they already were worshiping the Lord they were already doing all the right things you might say they were behaving themselves. They hadn't done anything to deserve this but now the Assyrians had surrounded Judah they actually.
Jerusalem itself was under siege they were vastly outnumbered they had no hope of any kind of a military victory and everything that Hezekiah and his people had worked so hard for was about to be either destroyed or stripped away from them. They had done nothing wrong, but this was an attack that was too powerful to them now.
Hezekiah tried to assure the people that God was going to take care of them and so Sennacherib began sending messengers into Judah into Jerusalem he also was sending letters threatening letters to Hezekiah
I want us to look at a passage that gives us an idea of the kind of message that Sennacherib was sending to the people look at this passage it's that they're quoting Sennacherib
He says don't let Hezekiah persuade you
nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ‘Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, “Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live and not die.” But do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.”
This is how the devil sound like the devil saying look if you just come on out if you just play along with me if you just do things the way I say your life is going to be wonderful everything you ever wanted I will give it to you it'll be just like the life that you've always wanted if you'll just do things my way don't listen to those preachers don't listen to those Christians who say well no this is the way you're supposed to live this is the life god blesses
don't listen to them listen to me it sounds just like him doesn't it that was a message from Sennacherib.
Remember Hezekiah hadn't done anything wrong so this was not God's punishment but it couldn't have seemed like God's reward for doing the right thing either so now we have to get to a question of how does this apply to your life I mean why am i giving you the history lesson
Why this is important when you come to the Bible and reading stories like this you have to remember that the Bible does
not just tell us
what God did it tells us how he does things
it doesn't just tell us the things that happened
it tells us how things happen
it doesn’t just tell us the things that God said it tells us how God thinks
The Bible is not a collection of historical facts it is a collection of eternal truth so when you come to an historical passage like this passage out of 2nd kings about Hezekiah you have to ask
what is the eternal truth what is God trying to say?
why out of all of the things that ever happened to that nation
why did he want this story to be written down?
why did he want this promise from Isaiah to be written down?
what is God trying to say to us
what is he trying to say to me?
When and how does this apply to my life
Look at a verse of scripture that backs up what I just said to you this from
Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
Today as you know Nations are not judged that way this side of the cross are different, even though you see some nations really doing wrong they seem to prosper in their wickedness.
Then what is trying to tell us.
God's people in the Old Testament it says these things happen to them as examples and they were written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come
so we have to say what's the example and what's the warning why did God want this written
what's he trying to say to us so now let me get back to your life and say
how does this apply to you what does your life look like in terms of this kind of story does it ever seem to you like your actions like your motivation is being unfairly challenged by somebody or that maybe you are under attack for doing the right thing or you're under attack for refusing to do the wrong thing
or you feel like you are about to just be swept away by something by forces by people by some circumstance that is just too much for you to withstand does any of that ever sound familiar to you where you're outnumbered and you just find that you are overcome by overwhelming odds and you're going God, I don't get this I've been living right so why is this happening
Let me tell you something there is no one in Old Testament who experienced what we are experiencing in the new covenant. God loves you he is compassionate, he is faithful, he cares more about your life than even you do.
Some time God allows things to happen because he wants us to learn something about himself and sometimes, he lets them happen because he wants us to learn something about ourselves and sometimes he lets them happen because he wants to show the world something about who he is and he's going to show the world through you through your experience.
Let's see how He responded to this let's look at what he did here's what the Bible says this is right after he's
gotten this letter it says
Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. “Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. “Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. “Now, O Lord our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Lord, are God.”
Hezekiah went up to the temple of the Lord and he spread the letter that's the bad news he spread the letter out before the Lord and Hezekiah prayed O Lord God of Israel and throne between the cherubim you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth now O Lord our God deliver us so that all the kingdoms on earth may know that you alone are God now what can we learn from what Hezekiah did well here's the
First thing we can learn before he planned he prayed it's important to get the order right on that before he planned he prayed our tendency when we find some challenge or crisis is to start trying to figure out what are we going to do how are we going to get through this how are we going to outsmart whoever it is and we come up with some scheme some plan and then we pray and say Lord would you please bless us because God if you don't bless this plan it's not going to work but prayer is not about getting God to agree to your plan prayer is not about bringing God to his senses prayer is about bringing me to God's awareness
Prayer is not about me saying Lord here's my plan I hope you'll bless it prayer is about saying Lord what is the plan that you intend to bless and I'll do that instead that's how Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer we begin
Our Father in heaven Hallowed be your name let your name be glorified
That's how Hezekiah prays let's look at his prayer again here's what he said he begins with worship
“Oh Lord God of Israel and throne between the cherubim you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth so he starts with prays you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth here's why this is important because in those times when one nation defeated another nation it wasn't just a physical army defeating another physical
army the people viewed that as one God defeating another God Sennacherib and the Assyrians had said no other gods have been able to withstand us and so Hezekiah prays and says you alone you alone are God over all of the kingdoms of the earth so he begins with worship declaring who God is and then he says now O Lord our God hears our need deliver us why he doesn't say deliver us so that I can be the hero he doesn't say deliver us so that our people can live in peace and have a happy life he says deliver us so that all the kingdoms on the earth may know that you alone O Lord our God the ultimate goal of Hezekiah Sprayer is that the name of the Lord will be glorified and that needs to be the way we pray –
I have you a main verse from Isaiah in the beginning. In the middle to this challenging time and desperation
God sends a man named Isaiah, Isaiah was of the nation's prophet and God sent Isaiah the nation's
spiritual leader to Hezekiah the nation's political leader and he sent him with a message for God's people and this message actually covers several chapters of the book of Isaiah when you read Isaiah and you're reading all of these promises and all of these prophecies while they take place in the context of this season this time when the Assyrians are coming against the people of Judah and God sent several messages that you can read in that book but this one in particular is what we're looking at today
And He will be the stability of your times, A wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge; The fear of the Lord is his treasure.
what God is saying to Hezekiah and the people is what you're going through and I know how you feel but you don't have to be afraid I have heard your prayer and then God gives a magnificent promise of deliverance to the people and it's in this context of a bad thing happening to a good man who is facing overwhelming odds in that context God makes this promise so let's look atthe promise again the Lord will be the sure, foundation for your times a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure now as you look at that verse a little bit
· what does he mean by the Lord will be the sure foundation for your times what kind of times is he talking about here well, he's not talking about the lifespan of Hezekiah not talking about that time he's not talking about ages he's talking about specific moments in time decisive moments in time what the Greeks would later call Kairos moments, they are moments of decision that must be pressed through in order to accomplish a specific purpose they're the kinds of times in your life where someone might say hey how you doing and you go man I'm going through a rough time right now or I'm really having a hard season in our life or you look back on something to say man wasn't that an amazing time of our life it's those kinds of times that he's talking about and those times usually come to us unexpectedly they come suddenly and often they come undeservedly we've done nothing to deserve them.
· it's just happened in Hezekiah case this time was a national crisis the preservation of a nation was at stake in your life this kind of time could be a personal crisis where your own preservation is at stake
o it could be a catastrophic illness
o it could be a deep loss of a loved one
o it could be a betrayal by a dear friend a trusted friend or a loved one it could be one of those times when it seems like everything in life is just crashing in on you maybe you got a bad report from your doctor
o maybe you got a phone call in the middle of the night that woke you up with news that you never wanted to hear maybe there's a relationship that's been meaningful to you and suddenly it's on rocky ground and you're going why is this happening I thought I was doing everything right I don't understand why this is all going wrong why is this person betraying me why is this person turned against me.
It's in these times that we are tempted like the people of Israel were to sell out to give in to compromise what we
know is right and true because if we would just give in or give up life would be so much easier if we just stop putting up resistance everything would be just rosy but it's those times when your faith your character and your integrity are being put to the test
Now for Hezekiah he needed three things in this crisis and all three of them were addressed in this promise
· first he needed knowledge he needed to know what is going on what are my enemy's plans what is he going to do next he needed knowledge
· second he needed wisdom what kind of decision am I supposed to make what is the best thing for me to do how can I find our way through this I need some wisdom here because I've only got one shot at this if I make one mistake if I slip up here it's all over so he needed knowledge he needed wisdom and he needed salvation
· he needed to be rescued he needed to be delivered a kind of deliverance that only God could provide does that sound like something that you need
· do you need knowledge or wisdom in the face of something that you're standing in front of right now
Lord in prayer and hear the Lord say to you through this verse just like he was saying to Hezekiah or he says have heard your prayer and I know how you feel and I know what you're facing and I know why it's happening but you don't have to be afraid because I myself will be your sure foundation I will undergird you I will uphold you with my righteous right hand I will sustain you if you need wisdom I will give it to you and I will show you what to do in this moment in our time the Lord says I will be the solid rock for you to stand on your shore firm unwavering unshakable foundation so don't move off that foundation and I will be a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge for you
· if God has given you a promise a promise where we understand the context it's his gift to you well now we need to unpack this gift unwrap it a little bit when he says I will be a rich store of salvation what's he talking about there well it's important to understand the meaning of salvation in Scripture
· salvation does not just mean to have your sins forgiven so you can go to heaven
· salvation means to relieve you from something that is constricting or confining you and to give you room to breathe salvation also means to turn scarcity into sufficiency
· It means to bring freedom from distress
· God says I will be a rich store of salvation for you I will be your sufficiency I will provide for you or does it seem that you just cannot catch a break and everywhere you turn one thing after the other is going wrong and you're about to give up hope God says I will be a rich store of salvation I will bring freedom
The greatest awareness we should have is about God’s love for each one of us, Bible says that perfect love
casts out fear and God loves you perfectly so it's not that kind of fear
Bible tells us how this crisis ended for Hezekiah and Sennacherib it tells us in 2 chronicles and what we find as we read through the story is that that very night the night that God sent Isaiah with a message to Hezekiah that very night God also sent an angel into the Assyrian army camp and 185 thousand Assyrian soldiers died in one night and God's people never even had to leave their houses Sennacherib escaped that scene returned to Assyria in disgrace and shame and he was assassinated by his own two sons in the temple of his own God that's how that story ended.
You can choose to fear the Lord and worship Him and then experience his deliverance or you can rely on yourselfand face your enemy all alone it's your choice and it's a choice that you are going to make whether you want to or not it's inevitable you will make the choice who will you worship who will you follow who will you fear will you fear the Lord or will you fear your enemy your enemy wants to destroy you the Lord wants to set you free who are you going to fear the fear of the Lord.
Illustration: Dead Dog
“What is God going to do with the Dead Dog”
John 11
Lazarus
Sometime we feel like Mary and Martha and we struggle to understand, we are calling out to Jesus and He just doesn’t seem to be coming. He was not just going to show up.
Mary and Martha illustrate in John 11 that its is important in whatever situation we find our selves our perspective is limited. We don’t see the whole picture, they couldn’t imagine how their story could have had a happy ending but Jesus all along had something in mind.
This is what I would like to remember God is fully aware of all our circumstances and problems. From where you stand it might be imppossible to see how you situation can end well but you don’t see from eternal perspective, you have not been forgottten. What God is going to do with the dead Dog the little boy asked, this is the question we asked ourselves, how could this be a good thing, I have asked this question.
Well there is answer to that question, What God is going to do with the dead God, well He could resurrect it. Dead things doesn’t deter God , He can put life back into the dead things, Whether its a dead dog or dead marriage, dead career or whatever that is, Hope is not gone just because semthing appears to be dead. Or God can redeem it, God can use the disappointment of our lives for the greator purpose we don’t know what is good or bad for us only He does. God loves everyone of us on this planet. More than ever when you are going through the tough times need to remember His love for you and your union with Him. We may not understand how He is going to use it but we can I know it will turn our for good purpose.
If You are standing in from of dead dog situation or like Mary and Martha standing in front of tomb of your circumstance and you are grieving and mourning. You must remember your story is not over. If you story didn’t have a happy ending that’s because it hsa not ended yet. Sometimes we have to look beyond the veil, we have to look beyond this life. We have to look into the next world that has a happy ending and we have to rest in that.
So whats God gonna do with the dead dog well whatever He wants to do, His job is to be in charge of things, don’t mean we are all robots no saying altimately He is indeed incharge. There is a persence of loving God in all our lives, we have to trust in Him and no matter what circumstances you are in your job is to look beyond the circumstances and look through it and see there is a divine love that is in you and there is not situation or circumstance you will face without Christ in you.
You are never alone.
Amen.