May 3, 2025 • 42 mins
Comfort in the Storm
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Episode Transcript
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Dan Simmons (00:00):
Details are important. Your bulletin says Isaiah 4 verses 3 through 5. The church thing says
Isaiah 4 verses 3 through 5. And I checked my text message that said, hey, what is your main text?
And I had sent Isaiah 4, 3 through 5. Details are important. Isaiah 43 through 5. Has anybody
(00:27):
heard that text before? Where have you heard it before? In classes and sermons. How about somebody
else saying those words? I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Does it sound familiar?
John the Baptist. John the Baptist. This is a cry that Jesus is coming again.
(00:55):
This is a proclamation that Jesus is coming again.
This is the Elijah message.
Before we start, let's bow our heads with
prayer.
Good morning, Father.
Thank you so much.
You are an amazing God.
(01:16):
As we open your words, again, please show what you want to see.
What you want us to see.
please use me
just to speak through me
I don't want to be my words
please your words
(01:37):
please send your spirit
to each one of us
and guide us closer to you
I pray in Jesus name
amen
Isaiah 40 opens up
extremely strange. You see, there was a history that Isaiah kind of has this,
(01:58):
that it'll go through prophecy and then it'll go to history and then prophecy and then history.
Let's open up to Isaiah 40.
Out in the middle of the Bible, a little bit to the right, Isaiah 40. And you'll see Isaiah 40,
verse one, it says, comfort, oh, comfort my people, says the Lord. Isaiah 40, verse one,
(02:22):
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
Speak kindly to Jerusalem and call out to her.
Now, is this a prosperity gospel?
You guys have all heard Joel Osteen talk,
and he's kind of a prosperity guy,
and he'll talk about God wants to bless you.
(02:42):
This is not one of those texts.
What is this talking about?
Is this one of those, well, God is so loving and kind.
Why is God calling out comfort, comfort my people?
Now, I'll say, first of all, when God repeats something, it's important.
That's like saying, pay attention.
(03:04):
Now, my name used to be Danny Lucas.
My mom would call me when I was a kid, and she would say, Danny, Danny, I paid attention.
Right?
You hear that twice.
You hear it three times, you're in trouble.
Right?
God says, comfort, comfort my people.
This is important.
(03:25):
In order to really unpack what's happening in this text,
in this Elijah message,
because this is so much a message for us today.
Let's look at the life of Isaiah.
Let's go all the way back to Isaiah chapter one.
Isaiah chapter one.
Isaiah chapter one.
(03:47):
And see what was going on at the beginning of his prophecies.
is Isaiah chapter 1.
And let's start out with verse 12.
When you appear before me, who requires of this trampling of my court?
(04:11):
Bring your worthless offerings no longer.
Incense is an abomination to me.
New moons, new Sabbaths.
Now, who instituted all of these things, the new moons, the Sabbaths, the Sabbath days,
the ceremonies that they would go through, the temple, the sacrifice?
Who instituted that?
Who said, this is what I want you to do?
God.
(04:32):
So God is saying, who asked you to do this?
When he's the one that asked him to do this, why would he, does God have memory problems?
I would say, no.
So why is he saying that?
exactly they've forgotten the reason it says i hate your new moons 14 i hate your new moons
(04:56):
sabbaths appointed feasts they become a burden to me i am weary of them why are they a burden
what are those feasts all those things what do they point to they point to salvation and jesus
taking away the sins of the world so these point to god carrying the sins of the people
(05:16):
And God says, this is too heavy for me.
This is a burden.
This is something I don't want to carry.
So he says, verse 15.
So when you spread out your hands and pray, by the way, pause, side note, pause, side note.
When we pray, we typically do it head down like this.
(05:39):
And that's what I was taught.
That's what everybody was taught.
You look at some drawing, painting of, say, Ellen White.
it's like this.
I
I love this picture
when you have your arms
stretched out in prayer.
And maybe we've come to think
(06:00):
that maybe that's a haughty thing
or a proud thing
but there's just something special
and I'm not saying we gotta do that
but it's just a beautiful picture to me
of
reaching out to God
and saying God
I am you.
Steve.
Moving on. Unpause.
(06:27):
It says, when you spread your arms out, 15, I will hide my eyes from you. Even if you multiply
in prayers, I will not listen. I'm not going to hear your prayers anymore. Well, why? Verse 16,
wash yourself, make yourself clean, remove evil of your deeds from my sight. Cease to do evil,
(06:51):
learn to do good, seek justice, reprove. And then verse 18, a verse we all know,
it says, come now, let us reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet,
they will be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
(07:13):
god is not tired of carrying our burdens he's tired of this whole as elijah put it when he's
standing on the mountain waiting for the fire to come down he addresses the people and says
how long will you struggle between two opinions he's tired of this i am on god's side but i'm
(07:34):
going to watch this movie i am on god's side i'm going to come to church i'm gonna i'm gonna follow
oh God, but oh, that's a cool joke.
Let me tell that one.
And this isn't to condemn.
It's to say God is looking for a people that is all in.
(07:55):
He's looking for a people that says, I am God's.
My whole heart belongs to God.
I will surrender my entire being.
Fill me with your spirit.
Let every word of my mouth be praised to you.
so isaiah is seeing this he's he's wanting this he's desiring this for his entire nation
(08:20):
now let's skip back isaiah chapter one we're already there but let's skip back to verse one
and it says the vision of isaiah the son of amoz concerning judah and jerusalem which he saw during
the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. So his prophecy spans four kings. Now it kind of
(08:43):
spanned a little bit of the fifth kingdom, but not very long. We'll explain that in a little bit.
Uzzah was a great king. Uzzah was a great king, and God really blessed Uzziah,
sorry, really blessed Uzziah, and he did some amazing miracles, really brought the kingdom
(09:05):
God, but he didn't take down the high places. He still kind of let false religion there,
but he did a lot to serve God, and he gave his whole heart to God, but he became proud.
And when he became proud, he said, well, I'm king. I'm a good king. I follow God with all my heart,
(09:25):
so I should be able to be a priest too. So he said he was going to sacrifice in the temple of God,
and the priest kind of held him back.
No, don't do it.
Don't do it.
And he said, no, I'm going to do it.
And he sacrificed.
He took on the role of a priest.
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And as soon as he did that,
he became leprous as snow.
And he was kind of put in seclusion.
He couldn't go to the temple of God anymore.
And Jotham, his son, kind of ran things while he was slowly decaying and died.
(10:08):
Let's skip over to the next one, Jotham.
It says, chapter 6, Isaiah chapter 6.
Verse 1.
In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting in the throne,
(10:33):
loftily and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple.
So where is Isaiah when Uzziah died?
If he saw the train filling the temple, does it make sense?
He was at church.
He was in the temple.
(10:54):
Now, we just had a pope die.
A few months ago, we just had a new president take over.
And there's always a little bit of the stock markets haven't figured things out yet.
There's always a little bit of anxiety when there's a new leader, isn't there?
We're not sure yet how to handle the new guy.
(11:17):
Now, whether you're left, right, whatever, I don't care.
By the way, I was with a discussion with a friend recently,
and they thought, well, as conservative, this is all I'm going to say politically.
He said, it's conservative religion that's going to bring about the end.
Well, when I look at Jerusalem during the time of Jesus,
(11:38):
they were extremely divided between left and right.
And everybody thought, well, this group or this group is going to do things.
But it was when those two groups together came together with a common goal of killing Jesus.
that they destroyed him.
I don't look at the left or the right
(12:00):
as this one is going to do one thing or the other.
When those two groups come together
with the common purpose of destroying God's people,
that's what I look at.
That's all I'm going to say politically, okay?
So we're done with the politics.
But there's a regime change.
There's this regime change,
(12:21):
and Isaiah is probably anxious about what is the new king going to do.
So he finds himself in church and he sees this image of God filling the temple.
And he says, whoa, I am doomed.
Because I have seen God and I'm a man of unclean lips and a people of unclean lips.
(12:49):
I love what happens next.
angel comes out grabs a coal from the altar touches it to his lips he says my problem is
my lips right god meets him where his problem is you know he meets every one of us where our problems
are if we have something that we say i can't do that for god i i i don't know i've got this problem
(13:12):
or that problem god takes that coal and he meets us where that problem is and he heals our heart
he recreates us he gives us the spirit to overcome
it's not our job i'm not saying we don't struggle against sin but it's not our job to overcome god
overcome our sin it's our job to cling to jesus ask for his spirit
(13:38):
and ask jesus to work through us to overcome that and when we fail
it's our job to rely ever have more heavily on that relationship with jesus be even closer to him
so he's in church and god says all right who am i gonna send and he says here am i send me
(14:08):
the jotham was also a good king jotham was a great king but he also didn't take away the high places
But after Jotham, after Jotham came Ahaz.
Ahaz was the worst king that had ever come up to this point.
He was horrible.
(14:31):
Not only did he not want anything to do with God,
but he got worse and worse in his progression of going against God.
So during Ahaz's reign, Rizan from Syria came down, and the Israelites came down to attack him.
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They said, well, let's get together.
Let's take over Judea.
Let's rule over this, make it our kingdom.
Now, Ahaz, being not a man of God, Isaiah had already told him, this isn't going to happen.
Don't worry about it.
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God has a plan.
He's not going to let this happen.
But Ahaz took money from God's temple, gave it to Tilgath-Pileser, I'm probably slaughtering that name, the Assyrian king, and said, can you take care of this problem for me?
So the Assyrians beat up on the Syrians.
They beat up on the Israelites.
(15:34):
They were the ones that eventually destroyed Israel.
And then Ahaz goes and sees what he bought.
He sees what he bought, and he sees over here in Damascus,
this town that was just attacking him, this town of false gods.
He sees this altar that he falls in love with.
(15:57):
So he says, okay, I want plans sent back.
Before I get home, I want an altar just like this one to a horrible temple to a demon.
I want that exact same altar placed in the temple of God.
I want you to take the altar that God designed, move it to the side.
(16:18):
I'll kind of use it whenever I need to ask God a question.
So I'll use it as a spare tire.
By the way, I was asked this week, is God, is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?
Right?
He says, I'll use that as my spare tire.
If I need something, I'll go to it.
(16:38):
But other than that, I want all sacrifices for everybody to happen on this altar that I designed off of this false worship.
And then he said, well, that's not enough.
He said, I don't really, you know, the Damascus God, they were pretty powerful.
(17:01):
So let me worship them.
And he put altars everywhere inside the temple.
He put altars.
Isaiah says, listen, this isn't going to end well.
And he says,
look, you're going to be okay.
(17:21):
Just ask God a question.
And Ahaz says, I'm not going to ask him nothing.
And he said, just ask for a sign, any sign you want,
and God will reveal himself to you.
And Ahaz says, I don't care.
I don't want any sign.
I don't want to hear from God at all.
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This is interesting.
isaiah tells him there will be a sign and this will be the sign a virgin will give birth
even to a false king
one of the best prophecies was given can you imagine god in his love reaching out over and
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over again to people that reject him. Amazing, isn't it? Ahaz finally dies. It's 16 years that
he was on the throne, and he dies, and the kingdom is given to Hezekiah. Hezekiah was 25 years old
when he became king. I'm an engineer, so I'm really bad at math.
(18:36):
But I can take 25 minus 16, and I can say that he was about, am I right, nine years old when Ahaz became king.
Hezekiah is one of the best kings that Judah ever had.
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Did you know that?
Now, this is why we wanted to invite the children forward.
This is why the children are so important to the church.
moses only had a little bit of time with his mother before he got all that influence
of the of the egyptian courts right hezekiah got nine years before ahaz took over and there must
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have been something important that happened in those nine years because as soon as ahaz takes
over the very first month of the first year of his reign he opened the doors of church ahaz had
closed the doors of church. He had closed the temple completely. And the very first thing
Hezekiah does is he opens the doors of church. Now I want to go over to, and I'm watching the time,
(19:47):
go over to 2 Chronicles, verse 29.
Second Chronicles, sorry, chapter 29.
Thank you.
Second Chronicles chapter 29.
See, Isaiah 4 versus Isaiah 40.
I'm getting very much, yeah, that one.
(20:16):
All right, Second Chronicles chapter 29.
Verse five.
This is when he opens up the church and he gathers all the Levites.
And then he said to them, listen to me, O Levites,
consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the house of the Lord,
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of the God of your fathers,
and carry the uncleanness out of the holy place.
For your fathers have been unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the Lord our God
and have forsaken him and turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord
and have turned their backs.
They've also shut the door and the porch and all this stuff and skipped down to verse 9.
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It says, for behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, our sons, our daughters, our wives now in captivity.
All these bad things have happened.
Why? Because we left God.
He says, now it is in my heart.
Verse 10, now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel.
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that his burning anger may be turned away from us.
My sons, do not be negligent now,
for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him,
to minister to him, to be his ministers,
and burn incense.
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And this is the challenge for us today.
I believe the Lord has chosen us,
every single one of us today to stand before him,
to minister to him, to be ministers, to burn incense.
What is incense?
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Prayer.
Incense represents prayer.
God is calling us first to stand.
That's kind of difficult sometimes.
The crowd is getting louder and louder of people that reject God, right?
They don't want anything to do with God.
And I had discussions the last week with somebody who is atheist.
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It can sound so nice and calm and everything.
And I'm not saying they're a bad person,
but then the arguments that they bring are very much an attack.
The crowd is getting louder and louder,
and God is calling some people,
he's calling every one of his children first to stand.
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I am a child of God and I stand on the word of God.
To be his minister.
God is calling every single one of us to be his minister.
What does that mean?
The Levites had a special job.
Their job was to bridge the gap between God and man.
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their job was to go and teach and preach and share god's love with the entire world
god is calling people to stand he's calling them to be his minister he's calling them to minister
what does that mean before we can go and tell god uh people about the god that we love the god that
we serve we first need to serve them don't we when somebody is hurting when somebody
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is in need of something.
God is calling
us to fill that need,
to minister to them.
And he's calling us to burn incense,
to pray for the people around us.
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So Isaiah,
he gets hezekiah the king and i can imagine all of his dreams for what he was wanting this kingdom
to turn into what he wanted judea to be everything was happening exactly like he wanted it the church
doors were open the the um the the temple was consecrated the levites were consecrating themselves
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they were rededicating themselves to God.
Hezekiah sent out, this is cool,
Hezekiah sent out not only to his own country,
but also to Israel,
an invitation to the first Passover in a very long time.
And he said, whatever God you've been serving,
give that up, come to the Passover,
(25:02):
come to a revival.
That's what he was doing.
He was doing a spiritual revival.
Did you know that was the last revival that Israel had?
That was their last call to repentance.
Within three years, I believe, of Hezekiah's reign,
(25:22):
Samaria was surrounded.
Within six years of Hezekiah's reign, Israel was gone.
God sent Hezekiah.
Hezekiah is the last
Elijah message to the nation of Israel.
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Everything looks amazing.
But as Hezekiah's reign goes on, he shows that he's human.
As Hezekiah's reign goes on, he gets attacked not by Togeth-Pileser, but by Shennacherib.
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Both of these guys were pretty tough.
They were the biggest kids on the block.
They were, you know, Babylon became, you know, with Nebuchadnezzar became what we all know
as this big, powerful king that wiped out everybody.
Samaria was first.
You remember the story of Nineveh with Jonah.
Nineveh is the capital of Assyria.
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And you can imagine now the story of Jonah,
why he really didn't want to go.
These are people that are kidnapping people.
They're people that are torturing people.
They would take with the Ninevites,
with the Assyrians,
what they would do when they conquered a country
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is they would take everybody that lived there
and move them out.
that way you have no national pride they would put them within their nation
different places they would bring other people in and plant them into their nation
they would take away your national identity
so
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Israel is gone Judea is standing alone against Assyria
and Shnakarib comes now Shnakarib I believe is the one that
destroyed Babylon
when he when he attacked Babylon when he overcame it he destroyed their gods which is why Babylon
about 50 100 years later came and destroyed Nineveh completely and just leveled the city
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and now we know where it is there's got excavations that have happened you can see this is the layout
of the city you know but for a while we didn't know where it was because Babylon just completely
leveled it but this is in their heyday
shenachrib comes with 185 000 soldiers and surrounds jerusalem
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and first hezekiah kind of goes into the temple of god and he grabs the money and he
gives it to him and they go away now when you pay a bully what happens they ask for more
so he came back and this time 185 000 and hezekiah says what am i gonna do and isaiah says well you
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should have prayed the first time let's pray and i love this hezekiah didn't just ask isaiah to go
pray for him it says hezekiah and isaiah prayed
and when they prayed God sent an angel and wiped out 185,000 soldiers in one night
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Isaiah's got to be feeling great this is what I've been praying for this is what I've been wanting
a leader that is finally standing up for God a leader that is leading people back
to God
but hezekiah gets sick when hezekiah gets sick
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isaiah goes to him with a message you're gonna die
well that doesn't seem fair i've been serving god all this time
i brought back i gave the last revival to israel
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I've been serving God.
I've done all this stuff for God.
And God says, you're going to die.
How much do we love God?
If God says, I want you to follow me to the grave,
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are we willing to do it?
I remember stories of people burning at the stake, singing praises to God.
If God's plan forfeits my life, do I trust him enough to give it?
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Again, I'm not that great at math, but Hezekiah is given another 15 years.
And Manasseh is nine
years old when he becomes king.
Maybe God's plan had nothing to do with not liking Hezekiah.
Maybe it was that God saw how bad Manasseh was going to be,
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even worse than Ahaz.
And he says, I'm sorry, Hezekiah.
It's time to go.
But Hezekiah gets another 15 years.
and after you know he asked for this sign sundial we all know the story sundial
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goes back and other people come to visit and this is what i'm trying to get to
the babylonians come and he shows them everything you ever have you know somebody come over and you
want to brag oh when somebody comes over i love to show them the backyard there's the orange tree
there's the other orange tree there's the grapefruit tree look at all these wonderful plants my wife
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does like i don't know 50 000 fig trees i don't know how many there are there's a lot of them
and i love to show off all this stuff right hezekiah shows everything and isaiah comes and says
would you show him well i showed him everything i showed him the garage i showed him the motorcycles
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I showed them, you know, the cool car I'm building.
I showed them my bank account.
I showed them everything.
I'm trying to get back over to Isaiah.
Isaiah 39.
Isaiah 39, verse 5.
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah,
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Hear the word of the Lord of hosts.
Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house,
all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon.
Nothing will be left, says the Lord.
And some of your sons, whom you will issue from you,
whom you will beget, will be taken away.
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And they will become officials in the place of the king of Babylon.
Then Hezekiah said to him, to Isaiah,
the word of the Lord which you have spoken
is good for he thought for there will be peace in my days
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I'm going to ask you guys who
has children here
quite a few hands grandchildren quite a few hands I don't have any children but I have nieces I have
niece. I have a couple nephews that I love dearly. If God said, the plan that you've chosen, the thing
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that you've done, it's not really going to affect you. But I tell you what, your kids are going to
die. How's that going to make you feel? Not very good, right? And your grandkids are going to be
killed because of the decision you made. It's going to give you a sick spot in your
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heart, isn't it?
but Hezekiah says, that's good.
At least it's not going to happen to me.
A text without a context is a pretext.
When Hezekiah says, at least it's not going to happen to me,
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what is the very next words in the Bible?
Isaiah 40, verse 1.
Comfort.
Oh, comfort my people.
Why?
Because they put confidence in political leaders, religious leaders, whatever it is.
They put confidence in people who are not perfect.
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Who have selfish spots.
Who let them down.
Am I the only one that's been let down in this life?
We've all been let down, right?
We've all trusted somebody.
We've all counted on somebody and said, wow, that was a heartbreaking experience.
And God says, comfort, oh, comfort my people.
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Speak kindly to Jerusalem.
Call out to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed,
that she has received from her Lord's hand double for her sins.
One way to translate that is more than enough.
And you think of Paul when he said, where sin abounds,
grace does not much more abound. God says, whatever you've done,
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I have grace. My grace is sufficient for you. Now this, if we left right here, would be prosperity
gospel. This is what we would call cheap grace, right? You ever heard the term cheap grace? You
don't have to worry. All you have to do is come to Jesus. If you say this one prayer, you are
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saved and you can tell for the rest of your life you are saved. This passage isn't about cheap grace.
It says verse 3, a voice calling, clear the way of the Lord in the wilderness.
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain
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and hill be made low and let the rough ground become a plain
and the rough terrain a broad valley. What is it talking about? It's talking about,
have you guys driven up to Flagstaff lately? That road has changed a little bit, right?
It was a lot curvier. It was a lot more like this, and they've kind of smoothed it out a little bit.
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They've made it to where it's easier when they open it up to three lanes. It'll be even easier.
right there was so many accidents because of this road and saying we need to smooth out
the path we need to make a king's highway what about our lives is there pits in our lives
things that we're tempted in things that we follow things that we say
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i can't serve god because i have this
that needs to be filled in how is that filled in by relying on god by clinging to god
by allowing his spirit into us to change our hearts to smooth out that spot and say
my grace is sufficient for you i will heal you i will recreate you
(37:11):
what about the high places
there's times when i feel i'm i'm pretty good at what i do i have a good job i love what i do
I tell you there are some times when I think I was born to be an engineer
and then there are some days when I wonder how I lasted so
long
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there's times we can feel pretty good about ourselves
and we need to feel that humility
I am God's servant
I am yours
save
me
it says, every valley be filled in,
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every high place be taken down.
Verse five, then the glory of the Lord will be revealed
and all flesh will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Has this happened yet?
Has the glory of God been revealed
and all flesh seen it together?
(38:17):
No.
So this is a prophecy for the future, right?
If this is a prophecy for the future,
that means this is a proclamation for the future.
This is a proclamation that God is calling for us to give.
Comfort, comfort my people.
Speak kindly to Jerusalem.
(38:39):
Her warfare has ended.
She has received double for our sins.
Let every valley be made a plain.
Let every high place be taken down.
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed
and all flesh will see it together.
This is a proclamation for us
as we get to the end of the world.
And I'm watching the time,
I wanna close with this.
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2 Timothy, verse three.
And we all know this one too.
2 Timothy, verse three.
Before Hebrews, before Titus.
Hey, there we go, 2 Timothy.
Chapter three, verse one, it says, and realize this,
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in the difficult, in the last days,
slow down just a little bit.
In the last days, difficult times will come.
For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money,
boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents,
ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unreconcilable,
malicious, gossips, without self-control,
brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless,
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conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
holding a form of godliness.
although they have denied the power this is not talking about the world this is talking about the
church they are holding a form of godliness but have denied the power what is the power
it is the power to transform us into the image of god it's the power of i am yours save me i
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surrender myself to you change my heart it's the power of the holy spirit to recreate our hearts
we can look at the world
and say
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Ahaz
seems to be in charge
God is calling
for people who will stand
who will be his ministers
who will minister
who will burn incense.
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This is chapter 4, verse 1.
How should we treat?
How should we react?
How should we live in this world of treachery?
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God,
2 Timothy 4, 1.
And Jesus Christ, who was judge of the living and the dead
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by his appearing in his kingdom,
preach the
word.
Be ready in season, out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience
and instruction.
Sometimes we miss that part, right?
But the time will come when they will not endure
a sound doctrine,
but wanting to have their ears tickled,
they will accumulate for themselves teachers
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in accordance with their own desires.
God is calling for a last Elijah message
to go to a world
that seems lost but desperately needs it.
God is calling for a people to stand,
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minister, and pray.
He's calling for a new generation of Elijahs.
And we can only be there by focusing on him.
Father
we are yours
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save us
it is so easy in this world
to be pulled with all kinds of distractions
let us focus on you
be our vision
be our life
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we surrender our hearts to you
we are yours
save us
Details are important. Your bulletin says Isaiah 4 verses 3 through 5. The church thing says
Isaiah 4 verses 3 through 5. And I checked my text message that said, hey, what is your main text?
And I had sent Isaiah 4, 3 through 5. Details are important. Isaiah 43 through 5. Has anybody
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heard that text before? Where have you heard it before? In classes and sermons. How about somebody
else saying those words? I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Does it sound familiar?
John the Baptist. John the Baptist. This is a cry that Jesus is coming again.
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This is a proclamation that Jesus is coming again.
This is the Elijah message.
Before we start, let's bow our heads with
prayer.
Good morning, Father.
Thank you so much.
You are an amazing God.
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As we open your words, again, please show what you want to see.
What you want us to see.
please use me
just to speak through me
I don't want to be my words
please your words
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please send your spirit
to each one of us
and guide us closer to you
I pray in Jesus name
amen
Isaiah 40 opens up
extremely strange. You see, there was a history that Isaiah kind of has this,
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that it'll go through prophecy and then it'll go to history and then prophecy and then history.
Let's open up to Isaiah 40.
Out in the middle of the Bible, a little bit to the right, Isaiah 40. And you'll see Isaiah 40,
verse one, it says, comfort, oh, comfort my people, says the Lord. Isaiah 40, verse one,
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Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
Speak kindly to Jerusalem and call out to her.
Now, is this a prosperity gospel?
You guys have all heard Joel Osteen talk,
and he's kind of a prosperity guy,
and he'll talk about God wants to bless you.
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This is not one of those texts.
What is this talking about?
Is this one of those, well, God is so loving and kind.
Why is God calling out comfort, comfort my people?
Now, I'll say, first of all, when God repeats something, it's important.
That's like saying, pay attention.
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Now, my name used to be Danny Lucas.
My mom would call me when I was a kid, and she would say, Danny, Danny, I paid attention.
Right?
You hear that twice.
You hear it three times, you're in trouble.
Right?
God says, comfort, comfort my people.
This is important.
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In order to really unpack what's happening in this text,
in this Elijah message,
because this is so much a message for us today.
Let's look at the life of Isaiah.
Let's go all the way back to Isaiah chapter one.
Isaiah chapter one.
Isaiah chapter one.
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And see what was going on at the beginning of his prophecies.
is Isaiah chapter 1.
And let's start out with verse 12.
When you appear before me, who requires of this trampling of my court?
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Bring your worthless offerings no longer.
Incense is an abomination to me.
New moons, new Sabbaths.
Now, who instituted all of these things, the new moons, the Sabbaths, the Sabbath days,
the ceremonies that they would go through, the temple, the sacrifice?
Who instituted that?
Who said, this is what I want you to do?
God.
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So God is saying, who asked you to do this?
When he's the one that asked him to do this, why would he, does God have memory problems?
I would say, no.
So why is he saying that?
exactly they've forgotten the reason it says i hate your new moons 14 i hate your new moons
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sabbaths appointed feasts they become a burden to me i am weary of them why are they a burden
what are those feasts all those things what do they point to they point to salvation and jesus
taking away the sins of the world so these point to god carrying the sins of the people
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And God says, this is too heavy for me.
This is a burden.
This is something I don't want to carry.
So he says, verse 15.
So when you spread out your hands and pray, by the way, pause, side note, pause, side note.
When we pray, we typically do it head down like this.
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And that's what I was taught.
That's what everybody was taught.
You look at some drawing, painting of, say, Ellen White.
it's like this.
I
I love this picture
when you have your arms
stretched out in prayer.
And maybe we've come to think
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that maybe that's a haughty thing
or a proud thing
but there's just something special
and I'm not saying we gotta do that
but it's just a beautiful picture to me
of
reaching out to God
and saying God
I am you.
Steve.
Moving on. Unpause.
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It says, when you spread your arms out, 15, I will hide my eyes from you. Even if you multiply
in prayers, I will not listen. I'm not going to hear your prayers anymore. Well, why? Verse 16,
wash yourself, make yourself clean, remove evil of your deeds from my sight. Cease to do evil,
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learn to do good, seek justice, reprove. And then verse 18, a verse we all know,
it says, come now, let us reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet,
they will be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
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god is not tired of carrying our burdens he's tired of this whole as elijah put it when he's
standing on the mountain waiting for the fire to come down he addresses the people and says
how long will you struggle between two opinions he's tired of this i am on god's side but i'm
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going to watch this movie i am on god's side i'm going to come to church i'm gonna i'm gonna follow
oh God, but oh, that's a cool joke.
Let me tell that one.
And this isn't to condemn.
It's to say God is looking for a people that is all in.
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He's looking for a people that says, I am God's.
My whole heart belongs to God.
I will surrender my entire being.
Fill me with your spirit.
Let every word of my mouth be praised to you.
so isaiah is seeing this he's he's wanting this he's desiring this for his entire nation
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now let's skip back isaiah chapter one we're already there but let's skip back to verse one
and it says the vision of isaiah the son of amoz concerning judah and jerusalem which he saw during
the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. So his prophecy spans four kings. Now it kind of
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spanned a little bit of the fifth kingdom, but not very long. We'll explain that in a little bit.
Uzzah was a great king. Uzzah was a great king, and God really blessed Uzziah,
sorry, really blessed Uzziah, and he did some amazing miracles, really brought the kingdom
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God, but he didn't take down the high places. He still kind of let false religion there,
but he did a lot to serve God, and he gave his whole heart to God, but he became proud.
And when he became proud, he said, well, I'm king. I'm a good king. I follow God with all my heart,
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so I should be able to be a priest too. So he said he was going to sacrifice in the temple of God,
and the priest kind of held him back.
No, don't do it.
Don't do it.
And he said, no, I'm going to do it.
And he sacrificed.
He took on the role of a priest.
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And as soon as he did that,
he became leprous as snow.
And he was kind of put in seclusion.
He couldn't go to the temple of God anymore.
And Jotham, his son, kind of ran things while he was slowly decaying and died.
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Let's skip over to the next one, Jotham.
It says, chapter 6, Isaiah chapter 6.
Verse 1.
In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting in the throne,
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loftily and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple.
So where is Isaiah when Uzziah died?
If he saw the train filling the temple, does it make sense?
He was at church.
He was in the temple.
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Now, we just had a pope die.
A few months ago, we just had a new president take over.
And there's always a little bit of the stock markets haven't figured things out yet.
There's always a little bit of anxiety when there's a new leader, isn't there?
We're not sure yet how to handle the new guy.
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Now, whether you're left, right, whatever, I don't care.
By the way, I was with a discussion with a friend recently,
and they thought, well, as conservative, this is all I'm going to say politically.
He said, it's conservative religion that's going to bring about the end.
Well, when I look at Jerusalem during the time of Jesus,
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they were extremely divided between left and right.
And everybody thought, well, this group or this group is going to do things.
But it was when those two groups together came together with a common goal of killing Jesus.
that they destroyed him.
I don't look at the left or the right
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as this one is going to do one thing or the other.
When those two groups come together
with the common purpose of destroying God's people,
that's what I look at.
That's all I'm going to say politically, okay?
So we're done with the politics.
But there's a regime change.
There's this regime change,
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and Isaiah is probably anxious about what is the new king going to do.
So he finds himself in church and he sees this image of God filling the temple.
And he says, whoa, I am doomed.
Because I have seen God and I'm a man of unclean lips and a people of unclean lips.
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I love what happens next.
angel comes out grabs a coal from the altar touches it to his lips he says my problem is
my lips right god meets him where his problem is you know he meets every one of us where our problems
are if we have something that we say i can't do that for god i i i don't know i've got this problem
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or that problem god takes that coal and he meets us where that problem is and he heals our heart
he recreates us he gives us the spirit to overcome
it's not our job i'm not saying we don't struggle against sin but it's not our job to overcome god
overcome our sin it's our job to cling to jesus ask for his spirit
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and ask jesus to work through us to overcome that and when we fail
it's our job to rely ever have more heavily on that relationship with jesus be even closer to him
so he's in church and god says all right who am i gonna send and he says here am i send me
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the jotham was also a good king jotham was a great king but he also didn't take away the high places
But after Jotham, after Jotham came Ahaz.
Ahaz was the worst king that had ever come up to this point.
He was horrible.
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Not only did he not want anything to do with God,
but he got worse and worse in his progression of going against God.
So during Ahaz's reign, Rizan from Syria came down, and the Israelites came down to attack him.
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They said, well, let's get together.
Let's take over Judea.
Let's rule over this, make it our kingdom.
Now, Ahaz, being not a man of God, Isaiah had already told him, this isn't going to happen.
Don't worry about it.
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God has a plan.
He's not going to let this happen.
But Ahaz took money from God's temple, gave it to Tilgath-Pileser, I'm probably slaughtering that name, the Assyrian king, and said, can you take care of this problem for me?
So the Assyrians beat up on the Syrians.
They beat up on the Israelites.
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They were the ones that eventually destroyed Israel.
And then Ahaz goes and sees what he bought.
He sees what he bought, and he sees over here in Damascus,
this town that was just attacking him, this town of false gods.
He sees this altar that he falls in love with.
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So he says, okay, I want plans sent back.
Before I get home, I want an altar just like this one to a horrible temple to a demon.
I want that exact same altar placed in the temple of God.
I want you to take the altar that God designed, move it to the side.
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I'll kind of use it whenever I need to ask God a question.
So I'll use it as a spare tire.
By the way, I was asked this week, is God, is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?
Right?
He says, I'll use that as my spare tire.
If I need something, I'll go to it.
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But other than that, I want all sacrifices for everybody to happen on this altar that I designed off of this false worship.
And then he said, well, that's not enough.
He said, I don't really, you know, the Damascus God, they were pretty powerful.
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So let me worship them.
And he put altars everywhere inside the temple.
He put altars.
Isaiah says, listen, this isn't going to end well.
And he says,
look, you're going to be okay.
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Just ask God a question.
And Ahaz says, I'm not going to ask him nothing.
And he said, just ask for a sign, any sign you want,
and God will reveal himself to you.
And Ahaz says, I don't care.
I don't want any sign.
I don't want to hear from God at all.
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This is interesting.
isaiah tells him there will be a sign and this will be the sign a virgin will give birth
even to a false king
one of the best prophecies was given can you imagine god in his love reaching out over and
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over again to people that reject him. Amazing, isn't it? Ahaz finally dies. It's 16 years that
he was on the throne, and he dies, and the kingdom is given to Hezekiah. Hezekiah was 25 years old
when he became king. I'm an engineer, so I'm really bad at math.
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But I can take 25 minus 16, and I can say that he was about, am I right, nine years old when Ahaz became king.
Hezekiah is one of the best kings that Judah ever had.
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Did you know that?
Now, this is why we wanted to invite the children forward.
This is why the children are so important to the church.
moses only had a little bit of time with his mother before he got all that influence
of the of the egyptian courts right hezekiah got nine years before ahaz took over and there must
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have been something important that happened in those nine years because as soon as ahaz takes
over the very first month of the first year of his reign he opened the doors of church ahaz had
closed the doors of church. He had closed the temple completely. And the very first thing
Hezekiah does is he opens the doors of church. Now I want to go over to, and I'm watching the time,
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go over to 2 Chronicles, verse 29.
Second Chronicles, sorry, chapter 29.
Thank you.
Second Chronicles chapter 29.
See, Isaiah 4 versus Isaiah 40.
I'm getting very much, yeah, that one.
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All right, Second Chronicles chapter 29.
Verse five.
This is when he opens up the church and he gathers all the Levites.
And then he said to them, listen to me, O Levites,
consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the house of the Lord,
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of the God of your fathers,
and carry the uncleanness out of the holy place.
For your fathers have been unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the Lord our God
and have forsaken him and turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord
and have turned their backs.
They've also shut the door and the porch and all this stuff and skipped down to verse 9.
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It says, for behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, our sons, our daughters, our wives now in captivity.
All these bad things have happened.
Why? Because we left God.
He says, now it is in my heart.
Verse 10, now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel.
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that his burning anger may be turned away from us.
My sons, do not be negligent now,
for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him,
to minister to him, to be his ministers,
and burn incense.
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And this is the challenge for us today.
I believe the Lord has chosen us,
every single one of us today to stand before him,
to minister to him, to be ministers, to burn incense.
What is incense?
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Prayer.
Incense represents prayer.
God is calling us first to stand.
That's kind of difficult sometimes.
The crowd is getting louder and louder of people that reject God, right?
They don't want anything to do with God.
And I had discussions the last week with somebody who is atheist.
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It can sound so nice and calm and everything.
And I'm not saying they're a bad person,
but then the arguments that they bring are very much an attack.
The crowd is getting louder and louder,
and God is calling some people,
he's calling every one of his children first to stand.
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I am a child of God and I stand on the word of God.
To be his minister.
God is calling every single one of us to be his minister.
What does that mean?
The Levites had a special job.
Their job was to bridge the gap between God and man.
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their job was to go and teach and preach and share god's love with the entire world
god is calling people to stand he's calling them to be his minister he's calling them to minister
what does that mean before we can go and tell god uh people about the god that we love the god that
we serve we first need to serve them don't we when somebody is hurting when somebody
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is in need of something.
God is calling
us to fill that need,
to minister to them.
And he's calling us to burn incense,
to pray for the people around us.
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So Isaiah,
he gets hezekiah the king and i can imagine all of his dreams for what he was wanting this kingdom
to turn into what he wanted judea to be everything was happening exactly like he wanted it the church
doors were open the the um the the temple was consecrated the levites were consecrating themselves
(24:41):
they were rededicating themselves to God.
Hezekiah sent out, this is cool,
Hezekiah sent out not only to his own country,
but also to Israel,
an invitation to the first Passover in a very long time.
And he said, whatever God you've been serving,
give that up, come to the Passover,
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come to a revival.
That's what he was doing.
He was doing a spiritual revival.
Did you know that was the last revival that Israel had?
That was their last call to repentance.
Within three years, I believe, of Hezekiah's reign,
(25:22):
Samaria was surrounded.
Within six years of Hezekiah's reign, Israel was gone.
God sent Hezekiah.
Hezekiah is the last
Elijah message to the nation of Israel.
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Everything looks amazing.
But as Hezekiah's reign goes on, he shows that he's human.
As Hezekiah's reign goes on, he gets attacked not by Togeth-Pileser, but by Shennacherib.
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Both of these guys were pretty tough.
They were the biggest kids on the block.
They were, you know, Babylon became, you know, with Nebuchadnezzar became what we all know
as this big, powerful king that wiped out everybody.
Samaria was first.
You remember the story of Nineveh with Jonah.
Nineveh is the capital of Assyria.
(26:34):
And you can imagine now the story of Jonah,
why he really didn't want to go.
These are people that are kidnapping people.
They're people that are torturing people.
They would take with the Ninevites,
with the Assyrians,
what they would do when they conquered a country
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is they would take everybody that lived there
and move them out.
that way you have no national pride they would put them within their nation
different places they would bring other people in and plant them into their nation
they would take away your national identity
so
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Israel is gone Judea is standing alone against Assyria
and Shnakarib comes now Shnakarib I believe is the one that
destroyed Babylon
when he when he attacked Babylon when he overcame it he destroyed their gods which is why Babylon
about 50 100 years later came and destroyed Nineveh completely and just leveled the city
(27:40):
and now we know where it is there's got excavations that have happened you can see this is the layout
of the city you know but for a while we didn't know where it was because Babylon just completely
leveled it but this is in their heyday
shenachrib comes with 185 000 soldiers and surrounds jerusalem
(28:05):
and first hezekiah kind of goes into the temple of god and he grabs the money and he
gives it to him and they go away now when you pay a bully what happens they ask for more
so he came back and this time 185 000 and hezekiah says what am i gonna do and isaiah says well you
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should have prayed the first time let's pray and i love this hezekiah didn't just ask isaiah to go
pray for him it says hezekiah and isaiah prayed
and when they prayed God sent an angel and wiped out 185,000 soldiers in one night
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Isaiah's got to be feeling great this is what I've been praying for this is what I've been wanting
a leader that is finally standing up for God a leader that is leading people back
to God
but hezekiah gets sick when hezekiah gets sick
(29:16):
isaiah goes to him with a message you're gonna die
well that doesn't seem fair i've been serving god all this time
i brought back i gave the last revival to israel
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I've been serving God.
I've done all this stuff for God.
And God says, you're going to die.
How much do we love God?
If God says, I want you to follow me to the grave,
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are we willing to do it?
I remember stories of people burning at the stake, singing praises to God.
If God's plan forfeits my life, do I trust him enough to give it?
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Again, I'm not that great at math, but Hezekiah is given another 15 years.
And Manasseh is nine
years old when he becomes king.
Maybe God's plan had nothing to do with not liking Hezekiah.
Maybe it was that God saw how bad Manasseh was going to be,
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even worse than Ahaz.
And he says, I'm sorry, Hezekiah.
It's time to go.
But Hezekiah gets another 15 years.
and after you know he asked for this sign sundial we all know the story sundial
(31:07):
goes back and other people come to visit and this is what i'm trying to get to
the babylonians come and he shows them everything you ever have you know somebody come over and you
want to brag oh when somebody comes over i love to show them the backyard there's the orange tree
there's the other orange tree there's the grapefruit tree look at all these wonderful plants my wife
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does like i don't know 50 000 fig trees i don't know how many there are there's a lot of them
and i love to show off all this stuff right hezekiah shows everything and isaiah comes and says
would you show him well i showed him everything i showed him the garage i showed him the motorcycles
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I showed them, you know, the cool car I'm building.
I showed them my bank account.
I showed them everything.
I'm trying to get back over to Isaiah.
Isaiah 39.
Isaiah 39, verse 5.
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah,
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Hear the word of the Lord of hosts.
Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house,
all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon.
Nothing will be left, says the Lord.
And some of your sons, whom you will issue from you,
whom you will beget, will be taken away.
(32:35):
And they will become officials in the place of the king of Babylon.
Then Hezekiah said to him, to Isaiah,
the word of the Lord which you have spoken
is good for he thought for there will be peace in my days
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I'm going to ask you guys who
has children here
quite a few hands grandchildren quite a few hands I don't have any children but I have nieces I have
niece. I have a couple nephews that I love dearly. If God said, the plan that you've chosen, the thing
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that you've done, it's not really going to affect you. But I tell you what, your kids are going to
die. How's that going to make you feel? Not very good, right? And your grandkids are going to be
killed because of the decision you made. It's going to give you a sick spot in your
(33:39):
heart, isn't it?
but Hezekiah says, that's good.
At least it's not going to happen to me.
A text without a context is a pretext.
When Hezekiah says, at least it's not going to happen to me,
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what is the very next words in the Bible?
Isaiah 40, verse 1.
Comfort.
Oh, comfort my people.
Why?
Because they put confidence in political leaders, religious leaders, whatever it is.
They put confidence in people who are not perfect.
(34:26):
Who have selfish spots.
Who let them down.
Am I the only one that's been let down in this life?
We've all been let down, right?
We've all trusted somebody.
We've all counted on somebody and said, wow, that was a heartbreaking experience.
And God says, comfort, oh, comfort my people.
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Speak kindly to Jerusalem.
Call out to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed,
that she has received from her Lord's hand double for her sins.
One way to translate that is more than enough.
And you think of Paul when he said, where sin abounds,
grace does not much more abound. God says, whatever you've done,
(35:15):
I have grace. My grace is sufficient for you. Now this, if we left right here, would be prosperity
gospel. This is what we would call cheap grace, right? You ever heard the term cheap grace? You
don't have to worry. All you have to do is come to Jesus. If you say this one prayer, you are
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saved and you can tell for the rest of your life you are saved. This passage isn't about cheap grace.
It says verse 3, a voice calling, clear the way of the Lord in the wilderness.
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain
(36:00):
and hill be made low and let the rough ground become a plain
and the rough terrain a broad valley. What is it talking about? It's talking about,
have you guys driven up to Flagstaff lately? That road has changed a little bit, right?
It was a lot curvier. It was a lot more like this, and they've kind of smoothed it out a little bit.
(36:24):
They've made it to where it's easier when they open it up to three lanes. It'll be even easier.
right there was so many accidents because of this road and saying we need to smooth out
the path we need to make a king's highway what about our lives is there pits in our lives
things that we're tempted in things that we follow things that we say
(36:45):
i can't serve god because i have this
that needs to be filled in how is that filled in by relying on god by clinging to god
by allowing his spirit into us to change our hearts to smooth out that spot and say
my grace is sufficient for you i will heal you i will recreate you
(37:11):
what about the high places
there's times when i feel i'm i'm pretty good at what i do i have a good job i love what i do
I tell you there are some times when I think I was born to be an engineer
and then there are some days when I wonder how I lasted so
long
(37:34):
there's times we can feel pretty good about ourselves
and we need to feel that humility
I am God's servant
I am yours
save
me
it says, every valley be filled in,
(37:56):
every high place be taken down.
Verse five, then the glory of the Lord will be revealed
and all flesh will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Has this happened yet?
Has the glory of God been revealed
and all flesh seen it together?
(38:17):
No.
So this is a prophecy for the future, right?
If this is a prophecy for the future,
that means this is a proclamation for the future.
This is a proclamation that God is calling for us to give.
Comfort, comfort my people.
Speak kindly to Jerusalem.
(38:39):
Her warfare has ended.
She has received double for our sins.
Let every valley be made a plain.
Let every high place be taken down.
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed
and all flesh will see it together.
This is a proclamation for us
as we get to the end of the world.
And I'm watching the time,
I wanna close with this.
(39:02):
2 Timothy, verse three.
And we all know this one too.
2 Timothy, verse three.
Before Hebrews, before Titus.
Hey, there we go, 2 Timothy.
Chapter three, verse one, it says, and realize this,
(39:23):
in the difficult, in the last days,
slow down just a little bit.
In the last days, difficult times will come.
For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money,
boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents,
ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unreconcilable,
malicious, gossips, without self-control,
brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless,
(39:45):
conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
holding a form of godliness.
although they have denied the power this is not talking about the world this is talking about the
church they are holding a form of godliness but have denied the power what is the power
it is the power to transform us into the image of god it's the power of i am yours save me i
(40:11):
surrender myself to you change my heart it's the power of the holy spirit to recreate our hearts
we can look at the world
and say
(40:31):
Ahaz
seems to be in charge
God is calling
for people who will stand
who will be his ministers
who will minister
who will burn incense.
(40:51):
This is chapter 4, verse 1.
How should we treat?
How should we react?
How should we live in this world of treachery?
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God,
2 Timothy 4, 1.
And Jesus Christ, who was judge of the living and the dead
(41:12):
by his appearing in his kingdom,
preach the
word.
Be ready in season, out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience
and instruction.
Sometimes we miss that part, right?
But the time will come when they will not endure
a sound doctrine,
but wanting to have their ears tickled,
they will accumulate for themselves teachers
(41:35):
in accordance with their own desires.
God is calling for a last Elijah message
to go to a world
that seems lost but desperately needs it.
God is calling for a people to stand,
(41:56):
minister, and pray.
He's calling for a new generation of Elijahs.
And we can only be there by focusing on him.
Father
we are yours
(42:17):
save us
it is so easy in this world
to be pulled with all kinds of distractions
let us focus on you
be our vision
be our life
(42:38):
we surrender our hearts to you
we are yours
save us
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