The Heart of A Dark Horse
Notes
Transcript
Handout
On September 6, 1986, two Russian Ships collided in the Black Sea in a tragic accident that was one of the worst in the country’s history. One of the first ships, a freighter carrying a load of oats, was lightly manned, but the other, 17,000 ton, 525 foot liner, was carrying 1234 people. Although there was almost no damage to the freighter, the liner was ripped apart and started to sink within 15 minutes of the collision, leaving no time for the crew to launch lifeboats nearly 450 drowned in the accident, which investigators later determined could’ve been completely avoided. Neither ship had bad functioning technology, and there were no weather conditions that could have been responsible. Instead, the accident was due to dumb human pride. The captain of both ships knew they were on a course of collision at least 45 minutes before impact, they could’ve steered clear of each other, but they trusted instead in their own skills and refused to yield to each other, in fact, the freighter captain send a message that essentially said this, “I got this.“ Both men were later arrested and charged with gross negligence and carelessness.
In the study of the life of Hezekiah, we have learned some valuable lessons about what it means to be a Darkhorse. It means taking opportunities to overcome obstacles. It means not letting fear control you, or letting the enemy shake your confidence. It means going to God define strength when challenges arise and trusting that he’s working even when things look darkest. One of the most important Darkhorse qualities I hope you take from the study is this: the heart of a dark horse is full of humility, not pride. You see, a true dark horse knows that overcoming obstacles and finding confidence and strength to rise to victory or not solo acts. they are possible because of the power and grace of God.
Hezekiah had to learn about humility in a very unique way. Remember in an earlier lesson when we talked about struggle, and I told you the reason Sennacherib’s letter a ride just in the wrong time was because Hezekiah was also having health problems? Well, quan logically in our passage in second kings 20 occurs at the same time as those verses and second kings 19, which means it was still the 14th year of Hezekiah‘s reign, the army of Asyria hadn’t been destroyed yet, and Sennacherib was still alive. Although we know that God delivered Judah and put Sennacherib in his place, Hezekiah hadn’t seen these miracles yet. All he knows is that the 14th year was pretty terrible for him.
Have you ever experienced 14th year in your life? what time when it seems like problems we’re just piling up on top of each other and everything was going at you all at once? maybe you find yourself thinking what else can go wrong? 2020 and 2021 have been though his years for many people.
between second kings 19 and 20, Hezekiah‘s problem just kept getting bigger. He was dealing with the threat of Assyria’s Surrounding Jerusalem, his peoples panicking and losing their Surrounding Jerusalem, his peoples panicking and losing their confidence, and Sennacherib and Rabshakeh’s marking his faith in God and promising to destroy his land… And to top it all off, he got sick. But the Bible says that Hezekiah wasn’t just dealing with a mild illness; he was “sick unto death”
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
we don’t know what he had, the verse seven mentions a “boil“ which in the Hebrew language indicates in information or ulcer would’ve been extremely painful. He was so sick and in so much pain that he was basically bedridden, he cried to the Lord for help.
did you know that God is aware and concerned with our pain? David wrote that God keeps a record of every time we cry:
Thou tellest my wanderings: Put thou my tears into thy bottle: Are they not in thy book?
God is concerned about us. He loves us. As we saw him in the last Busan, he had a purpose behind our pain. John Butler said it this way: “at such times we may think God has forgotten us. But God has not for sake in us. He he has simply allowed us to experience troubles piled upon troubles in order to strengthen our faith in him.“ God had for sake in hezekiah either. But Hezekiah had one last lesson to learn through these trials. Let’s look at how Hezekiah learned humility, and some steps we must take to develop the heart of a dark horse.
Evaluate Your Time
Evaluate Your Time
If someone could tell you the exact date when you were die, what do you want to know? Some people pay a fortune teller or psychic who pretend to know the future or claim the lines in the palms of your hands can tell them how long you would live, but we know that stuff is bogus. Only God knows the time of your death because he has appointed it.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Seeing his days are determined, The number of his months are with thee, Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
But let’s just imagine someone could tell you when you were die. Let’s say that, like Hezekiah, you were very sick and the doctor said you only had weeks to live. How would you respond? Many people would start to reflect on how they spend their time. we all realize to a certain degree at life doesn’t last forever, and we tend to behave as if we have all the Time in the world. But if you read stories of people who have found out their time is running short, you’ll notice one thing they have in common is they suddenly start to realize how precious time is and how much of it I’ve been wasting on things that don’t matter.
Studies have suggested that in the average American life Spend of 78 years, more than a quarter of it - 25 years- is spent sleeping; nine years are spent watching TV; and in some cities over three months, or about 42 hours every year, I spent just sitting in traffic. That’s not even the worst of it. In late 2015 study by common sense media found that tween’s and teens spend between six and nine hours every day on social media, sometimes checking their social media profiles up to 100 times per day. That’s more time than the average person spend sleeping! And in the last few years companies like Hulu and Netflix have made millions by providing streaming media that take up even more of our free time, leading to January 2016 study that showed Netflix subscriber spent an average of 586 hours streaming and binge watching shows in 2015. If you knew you were about to die, how much time of that would suddenly seem like a waste?
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
The truth is, in life there is no visible Clock counting down the hours we have left. We don’t know how much time we have left. But Hezekiah knew his time was nearly up. God‘s message through Isaiah was,
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
By that he meant, “you’re going to die from the sickness. You need to get your house in order, you need to prepare for your death.” Hezekiah needed to get busy putting some things in motion – probably things like getting his finances in order, making sure his family was taken care of, and equipping the next king of Judah to pick up where he left off defending his nation. But most importantly, Hezekiah needed to prepare himself to meet God.
Are you prepared to meet God? What if you died today? Do you know where you would spend eternity? There’s a way you can know that when you meet God it will be on happy terms.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
some people hear this good news and say, “yeah, I want to go to heaven when I die. But I’ll make that decision later. I need more time first.“ The problem is not that we need more time; is that we need to use our time better. None of us have any guarantee of a long life. In fact, we don’t even know that we’ll be alive tomorrow.
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
The time God has given you right now is what matters. If you’ve been putting off giving your life to Christ and excepting his sacrifice on the cross to give you the gift of eternal life and forgiveness of sins, do it now.
(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
Some day your time will be cut short. Are you prepared? Are you using your time to live for God? Have you made a personal commitment to him? If not, that settled today. There’s no time to waste.