Participants: Sebastien Braxton
Series Code: 09GYC
Program Code: 09GYC000008
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00:12 Please bow your heads and join me for prayer.
00:17 Heavenly Father, I want to praise You for the Sabbath 00:20 because it is the first Sabbath of 2010. 00:23 What better way to start the year then to be here early 00:26 in the morning seeking You and Your word so that we may 00:28 know Your will and the plans You have for us in this year. 00:31 Lord, in this morning, I ask a very special blessing, an 00:35 outpouring of the Holy Spirit for every single person 00:38 that's present here and in a special way for Sebastien 00:41 Father, who will have Your message this morning 00:43 for Your people. 00:44 May we know Father, that You have a special plan for 00:47 us, that we will be the last generation to see You come. 00:50 That we will be the ones to take this message to every 00:53 single person in the world. 00:54 Please be here with us and open our hearts and mind and 00:58 prepare us to receive Your message this morning. 00:59 In Your name I pray, Amen! 01:09 Oh GYC do you love Jesus? 01:13 Audience: oh yes we love Jesus. 01:15 Are you sure you love Jesus? 01:18 Audience: We're sure we love Jesus. 01:20 And why do you love Jesus? 01:23 Audience: here's why I love Jesus because 01:26 He first loved me. 01:28 That's the reason we all ought to love Him. 01:32 Audience joins: oh how I love Jesus 01:37 Sebastien: I can't hear you. 01:38 Oh how I love Jesus, oh how I love Jesus, 01:47 because He first loved me. 01:52 How many of you, that is why you are here this morning? 01:54 Amen! no other reason but because we love Jesus. 01:59 We love to study the book that testifies of Him. Amen! 02:05 I have some good news for you. 02:08 Can I share some good news with you? 02:10 Audience: Amen! Sebastien: yes! 02:12 Two things, so last night I was in my bed reflecting over 02:18 my message about 10:30 PM I got a text message. 02:22 It was a little cryptic. 02:24 Come downstairs right now. 02:27 Okay, why? 02:33 People get assassinated that way. 02:34 Audience laughing! 02:37 Then they responded, just come, you have to see this. 02:40 Okay,... 02:44 I'm thinking I'm going to stay in my room and so then my 02:50 younger brother comes back into the room and he starts 02:54 telling me how everyone is gathered around this Piano 02:59 in the hotel. 03:00 Yes, was he telling me the truth? Audience: yes! 03:03 Yes, there was all these young people unashamed singing 03:08 the old songs of Zion. Is that true? 03:10 Audience: yes! Sebastien: yes! 03:12 Is that good news! Audience: yes! 03:14 So you guys kept your promise and did me a favor. 03:18 I pray that you will keep it up, 03:20 but I had even better news. 03:22 So my younger brother walked in and his first comment 03:27 was, I heard you talked about me this morning. 03:30 He got mad because I did not wake him up when I came. 03:32 So he was not here to hear me talk about him. 03:36 But my brother had gone to outreach yesterday, really 03:40 excited, and came back and said, you know, I'm going 03:45 to get baptized. Audience: Amen! 03:48 Amen! Audience: Amen! 03:49 So at first you know, when you have been praying for your 03:52 family for seven years, it doesn't really hit you 03:56 right away, right? 03:58 So I said okay and try to act real calm, cool, collected. 04:04 Then my brother was going out because he was telling me 04:07 how on New Year's Eve, in the evening, one of the reasons 04:10 he did not make my devotion was because he said he felt 04:13 impressed to go next door. 04:15 He said, you know I just felt led to test my character 04:17 and see if I am really over this drinking and smoking thing. 04:20 Have I really had a "but now" experience. 04:23 So he goes over to the next door where there were some 04:26 people there, not believers, who were celebrating, 04:28 bringing in the New Year, drinking, smoking. 04:30 So he comes in and he sits down, he plays the trombone. 04:33 He is really talented. 04:35 So he brings his mouthpiece around to keep practicing. 04:38 Goes next door and said I didn't want them to think 04:41 immediately I was here for Christian conference. 04:44 So I was just practicing my little trombone thing. 04:46 They said, oh yeah man have a seat. 04:48 So they started talking and they see his name tag and 04:51 say what is that? 04:52 Oh it is GYC. What is GYC? 04:54 So he starts going into Generation Youth for Christ. 04:57 This is what's happening with this and I wasn't trying 05:00 to get into this Christian thing so fast. 05:04 But they just kept pushing the issue. 05:07 So he said the next thing you know the conversation 05:09 immediately turned to spiritual every single person in 05:12 this little circle group he is sitting with start talking 05:15 about where they came from, God, their relationship with 05:18 Jesus, and Church and all these different things. 05:20 People were like, man you were given me a lot of 05:22 things to think about. 05:24 He doesn't end up leaving until about four o'clock 05:26 in the morning. 05:29 I'm like, he's not even baptized. 05:32 Audience laughing. 05:34 Unashamed, Amen! Audience: Amen! 05:38 I'm not going to tell you what he did on outreach, 05:42 but as we all know there is no person more unashamed 05:46 than a new convert, Amen! 05:49 I mean we are just bold and brash. 05:50 When I came into the church I was blasting people left 05:53 and right, it was like the wild, wild West. 05:56 Everywhere I was. 06:01 So I got up this morning very encouraged to hear that 06:05 good news that God has used you, as GYC, 06:08 to impact my family. 06:09 As the Bible says in Proverbs 11:30, verse 25 that he 06:17 that the liberal soul shall be made fat and he that 06:20 watereth shall be watered himself. Amen! 06:23 So if there's any possible way, by any stretch of the 06:26 imagination, God has used me to speak to your heart, 06:29 just know that God is also using you to reach my heart 06:32 by reaching my brother. 06:34 He went out of the room last night again and just on 06:39 fire for the Lord, so I made sure woke him up this 06:43 morning so he would not be angry with me before I left. 06:47 The title of our message this morning is, 06:51 Just This One Time, Just This One Time. 06:55 It is a very special message to me just because it 07:00 articulates a lot of things in my experience. 07:03 We are going to start from the book of 2 Chronicles 32. 07:07 Once you get there, we will have prayer together. 07:11 2 Chronicles Chapter 32. 07:16 When you're there please say Amen! 07:20 One thing about Sabbath, we just look good on Sabbath 07:23 morning, who would not want to be an Adventist 07:25 just looking at us. 07:31 2 Chronicles 32, are we there? Amen! 07:36 Alright, let's pray together. 07:44 Mighty God, everlasting Father, thank you for the 07:50 gift of life. 07:52 I thank you Jesus for traveling over mountain, land, 07:56 and sea to find the lost sheep of my brother. 08:00 I thank you for sweeping the house of this earth to find 08:05 the lost coin in him. 08:07 And I thank you Lord for meeting him a great way off. 08:12 Father, remind us of the first time we fell in love with 08:17 You, and You drew us with loving kindness and goodness 08:22 of God led us to repentance. 08:24 This morning Father we pray that by the power of Your 08:31 Holy Spirit, You would bring the Scriptures alive that 08:37 we may see Jesus in a new way. 08:40 That our hearts may burn within us, but not as Sebastien, 08:44 but as Jesus speaks with us by the way. 08:47 Teach us Lord of the importance of improving every opportunity 08:53 to bring Christ to others. 08:56 This is our prayer and we ask and trust that You will 09:01 help this to be our experience. 09:04 So we ask in Jesus name, Amen! 09:09 2 Chronicles 32, are you ready? 09:14 Yes, Amen! do you have your notes out? 09:18 Got your three questions down? 09:20 Ready to say Amen when something resonates 09:23 with your heart? 09:25 Yes, Amen! alright. 09:27 2 Chronicles 32:22, "thus the Lord saved Hezekiah and" 09:36 "the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of" 09:40 "Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of" 09:45 "all other, and guided them on every side. 23. And many" 09:50 "brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem, and presents" 09:54 "to Hezekiah, king of Judah: so that he was magnified in" 09:58 "the sight of," how many nations? "All nations from" 10:03 "thence forth. " 10:04 Now allow me to give you a little bit of background here. 10:08 The first that we start with the "thus the Lord saved" 10:12 "Hezekiah", anybody been saved in here by the Lord? 10:16 So thus the Lord saved Hezekiah, so the word thus means 10:20 this is exactly how he did, 10:22 as a result God saved Hezekiah. 10:25 So now the question is what did he save Hezekiah from? 10:29 Will it says in the verse, it says from the hand of 10:33 Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. 10:36 Well this is what happened. 10:37 Sennacherib, he wasn't just the normal heathen king 10:42 coming up against the people of God. 10:44 Sennacherib had began a military campaign. 10:48 As he started his military campaign he had the strategy 10:51 where he would come into towns, after he was given a 10:56 certain series of victories, decimating towns, bringing 11:00 nations to their feet. 11:02 He came to the place where he said you know, before I 11:06 come to Israel, Jerusalem is a very beautiful temple. 11:11 It is a very good land, so Sennacherib decides to be 11:16 diplomatic and he sends an e- mail to President Hezekiah. 11:20 Hezekiah wakes up one morning after having his devotions, 11:25 checks his e-mail and there in his in-box is a message 11:29 from Sennacherib, king of Assyria. 11:31 He says okay listen up Hezekiah, we have been destroying 11:36 country after country after country after country. 11:40 Now we are going to come up to Israel and I figure rather 11:43 than to decimate your country and destroyed Jerusalem, 11:46 how about you just surrender? 11:49 Oh, and by the way, don't try to do this religious stuff. 11:53 Don't try turning to your God, get on your knees and 11:57 pray, it's me, it's me oh Lord standing in 11:59 the need of prayer. 12:01 Don't try that stuff. 12:02 You see the other nations have turned to their God and 12:07 their God has not helped them. 12:09 What makes you think you're God can deliver you 12:12 from my hand? 12:14 So Hezekiah does something magnificent. 12:18 He goes and prints out the e- mail, takes the e-mail the 12:22 Bible says and he comes down and goes into the house of 12:27 the Lord and actually spreads it out before the Lord. 12:31 It is as if Hezekiah comes to God, in the temple, and 12:36 says Lord, have you seen this? 12:39 This is my situation, you see every other nation has not 12:44 been able to gain victory over Sennacherib. 12:47 I don't know about you, but there has definitely been 12:50 some Sennacherib experiences in my life. 12:53 Sometimes when you didn't know what to do. 12:56 Some situations that seem to overwhelm you emotionally. 13:00 Intellectually you had reached your wits end. 13:04 I don't know how to get out of this one and perhaps you 13:07 know other young people or other individuals who have not 13:11 able to get victory as well. 13:13 So the Bible recommends to you and I through the example of 13:18 Hezekiah, there are some things you have to spread out 13:21 before the Lord. 13:23 There're some things that you have to go to God and say, 13:25 Lord, this is the situation. 13:28 The Spirit of Prophecy says that if you spread it out 13:30 before the Lord your spirit will be braced 13:32 with endurance. 13:34 Something about communion with God, she says, 13:37 calms the soul. 13:41 This was his Sennacherib situation, spreading it out 13:47 before the Lord. 13:51 Now after he does this, Isaiah and Hezekiah are praying, 13:56 Prophet and King, and God sends an angel that destroys 14:01 185,000 soldiers in one night. 14:05 Sennacherib is obviously decimated and embarrassed. 14:10 He goes back to Assyria, gets murdered by his own sons. 14:15 Then we picked up the Bible where it says, thus the Lord 14:20 saved Hezekiah, can you say Amen! 14:25 Audience: Amen! 14:26 Have you had any Sennacherib situations in your life? 14:29 Maybe you are facing one right now. 14:35 You know there is something of a phenomenon 14:37 in the church. 14:39 I remember speaking at a series of different academies, 14:43 for some reason the invitations all came around 14:46 the same time. 14:47 And at every single Academy I would go to I was either 14:51 approached by young people or by the staff about 14:55 individuals being involved either in pornography, 15:00 masturbation, or sexual immorality at the Academy. 15:05 I went to one Academy and the young people were on their 15:07 iPods in between classes watching pornography in the 15:12 hallway and this was not a only high school Academy. 15:16 So they had to band all iPods. 15:22 I remember, one place I went, they said you know brother 15:25 Sebastien we have tried everything. 15:26 We have prayed, we've had seasons of prayer, we fasted 15:30 and prayed, we have tried to quarantine these 15:33 individuals, we try to have them stay in a room with 15:36 someone to keep them accountable and it seems as if there 15:38 is a Sennacherib situation on this young person. 15:42 It is as if the devil comes to us boasting. 15:45 Other young people haven't survived this temptation. 15:49 What makes you think you're God can deliver you? 15:52 What makes you think you are going to walk away from 15:55 this scot-free? 15:57 Do you really believe that God will never allow you 16:00 to be tempted above that which you are able and will 16:04 with the temptation provide a way of escape? 16:07 Do you really believe that? 16:08 Are you looking for the door out of every temptation? 16:15 There is no God that is going to deliver you and 16:17 friends this is where the rubber meets the road 16:19 in the Christian life. 16:21 People in the world want to know does it work? 16:24 Do you and I have victory? 16:27 Are we being delivered not from these little here and 16:30 there situations, I don't lie anymore, I gave up pork, 16:34 I stopped watching late-night crazy movies on HBO. 16:37 They want to know, deep down, we are talking about the 16:40 dark habits you don't want anybody to know about. 16:43 We are talking about the things in the closet, inside 16:46 the closet, inside the closet in the 16:48 basement of your life. 16:51 We are talking about the things that you and I are 16:54 ashamed of, those sins that bring you to your knees 16:57 and you wonder why this is the 200th time 16:59 you come before God. 17:04 We are just going through the motions. 17:09 Thus the Lord saved Hezekiah, and because the Bible 17:14 says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, the same today, 17:19 and the same for how long? 17:21 Then if He saved Hezekiah, what can He do for you? 17:25 So what do you have to do friends? 17:27 Some of us have to make sure that when we leave this 17:29 meeting this morning, you may have to put off your 17:32 breakfast for little bit. 17:34 You may have to go back to your hotel room and tell 17:36 your friends just give me 10 minutes. 17:39 I have a situation I need to spread out before the Lord. 17:42 I don't have time for socializing. 17:46 We are not in a generation or you can delay victory. 17:49 We can't afford that brothers and sisters. 17:51 There is no time to parlay with sin. 17:53 There's no time to parlay with temptation. 17:55 Dancing on the devil's enchanted ground, no time! 18:03 So we leave this meeting, some of us might need to linger, 18:08 some of us might need to find a quiet place, somewhere 18:13 where we can spread it out before the Lord. 18:18 Some husband has got to come to God about the way he has 18:21 been treating his wife. 18:23 Some child needs to come before God about the way they 18:27 have been treating their parents. 18:31 Some young person has to come before God about those 18:35 deep down sins that they think nobody knows about them. 18:39 We have talked about those, where we think evil is 18:41 victimless because nobody knows. 18:43 It is not victimless and we have to spread it 18:49 out before the Lord. 18:50 I believe on the authority of Scripture, that if you 18:55 spread it out before the Lord, like Hezekiah spread it 18:59 out before the Lord, God is the same. 19:01 If need be, when you are facing that temptation, 19:05 God will send an angel. 19:08 He did it for Jesus in the wilderness. 19:11 He did for Jesus in Gethsemane and 19:14 He will do it for you. 19:16 You don't have to buckle, and Friends it's hard to fall 19:20 into sin when you are on your knees already 19:22 before the Lord. 19:24 Sometimes we just need to stay in prayer like Jacob. 19:26 Until the victory comes. 19:28 And you say Lord I will not let You go until 19:31 You bless me. Until you bless me! 19:35 But the story gets better. 19:38 The Bible continues on in verse 22, and it says, "after" 19:44 "He saved the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hands of" 19:47 "Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, and from the hand of" 19:51 of how many? "All other!" 19:54 Now follow this, that means it wasn't just Assyria that 19:57 came up against Jerusalem, there were other nations 20:01 trying to attack them. 20:03 So as if people didn't get the picture, did you hear 20:06 about what they did to Assyria? 20:09 Well that was Assyria, they are not going to do that 20:11 to us, so God said you know what? 20:12 I'm going to deliver you not from this one temptation, 20:15 I'm going to deliver you from the hand of every other. 20:19 Amen! it doesn't matter if you get victory on Monday 20:22 only to fall on Tuesday. 20:24 Can you say Amen! Audience: Amen! 20:26 It doesn't matter for me to, I went two weeks and the 20:28 devil will let you go two months, Amen! 20:32 Some of us when we fall, we are like Lord I 20:35 thought I was over this? 20:37 The devil will let you ride for a while. 20:42 Then he comes right back at that one moment. 20:47 All your victories before are just shattered. 20:55 But this was not the experience of Hezekiah. 20:57 The Bible says that God delivered him from the hand of 21:02 all others and then in verse 22 he says, God guided 21:06 them on every side. 21:08 Anybody here need God's guidance this morning? 21:11 And then it goes to say God guided them on every side, 21:14 so Hezekiah sits down with his Cabinet. 21:16 He has got his director power, he has his secretary 21:20 maybe for evangelism in the kingdom, I don't know. 21:23 But whatever the case may be has got all these areas, 21:26 as a king, that he is managing. 21:28 Economics, policy, diplomacy, what ever it says God is 21:31 guiding the nation on every side. 21:34 Every aspect of Hezekiah's life, God is providing the 21:38 wisdom that is needed. 21:40 That is important because it is not enough for God to 21:43 keep delivering us, God wants to lead us in a way that 21:46 we just don't fall into temptation at all. 21:48 Amen! God is not like, oh I just will keep delivering 21:52 you, this is not a give-and-take relationship. 21:54 Thanks for delivering me and walk back into temptation. 21:58 Thanks for delivering me and walk back into temptation! 22:01 He wants to guide us on every side. 22:04 Verse 23, "and many brought gifts unto the Lord to" 22:09 "Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah:" 22:14 "so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations" 22:18 "from thence forth. " 22:21 Now this becomes even more powerful because back in 22:25 those days, if you saw a nation that was experiencing 22:28 the kind of military victories that Jerusalem was 22:32 experiencing, they become very diplomatic now. 22:36 Okay, if God is sending angels, and every other nation 22:39 has come against them, we may want to build a nice 22:43 relationship with them. 22:45 We don't want to get into Israel's mind to come and 22:48 attack us, so what we are going to do is send gifts. 22:51 They come in and they have the pomp, and circumstance, 22:54 okay, Hezekiah we bring you greetings from the 22:58 Amorite kingdom, this is just a gift and token 23:01 of our friendship. 23:03 So Jerusalem will never attacked us. 23:07 So many nations are bringing gifts and the Bible says, 23:13 so that he Hezekiah, was magnified in the sight of all 23:18 nations, I want you to notice what God 23:20 is doing in Hezekiah's life. 23:23 You go from being in a bind, a Sennacherib situation, 23:26 to now you are exalted in the sight of all nations. 23:30 Now is the Bible exaggerating? Yes or no? 23:34 No! When God says all nations, He really means all 23:40 nations, so here you have Hezekiah is exalted in the sight 23:45 of all nations. 23:48 The word magnify, you know we do, we take a magnify 23:50 glass, on something that is very small and 23:53 you blow it up. 23:54 Hezekiah has hit the big time. 23:56 Every time I think about this, the last time I preached 24:00 this message some months ago, it was last year actually. 24:07 At that time it was right after Barack Obama got elected 24:11 to the presidency. 24:13 I remember during my travels, I was on my way going to 24:17 Loma Linda, and while it was on my way there I stopped 24:20 at the airport to pick up reading, sometimes magazines 24:23 to see what is out there. 24:25 So I walked into the magazine section, maybe you saw 24:27 it too, every magazine has Obama on the cover. 24:32 You are sitting in the airport's seeing that CNN news, 24:34 Obama, change the channel, Obama. 24:37 You go over here it's Obama, you check the magazine rack, 24:40 it's Obama, Obama, Obama Home and Garden, Obama is on 24:43 the cover of Ebony, he's on the cover of everything. 24:46 I'm like, this brother is magnified in the sight of all 24:49 nations, people in Africa are talking about 24:51 he is the Savior now. 24:53 Now that he is president, he is going to do a lot more 24:57 for our continent. 24:58 Other countries looking to President Obama. 25:00 Exalted in the sight of all nations, so for me, my first 25:04 response was to pray for the brother. 25:06 Because if he makes any mistakes, it's over. 25:11 Just as quickly as the world lifts you up, they will 25:14 quickly tear you down. 25:16 You can believe that there are some people looking for 25:20 dirt on that man. 25:22 Hezekiah was exalted in the sight of all nations, but 25:26 you know that the Bible adds these extra two words. 25:29 It says, in the sight of all nations, from thence forth. 25:35 That means from this point on. 25:38 So here you have, he is not just on the cover of every 25:40 magazine, and every time you turn on the television, 25:43 he's got an interview with some talk show host, at some 25:46 point of time, that is not just 15 seconds of fame. 25:50 Hezekiah is exalted from thence forth all the way on. 25:54 So you keep going on with Hezekiah, Hezekiah keeps 25:58 being exalted, he is never off CNN. 26:01 He is never off the news, he's always on your twitter. 26:04 He's always on Facebook, he's always on everything you 26:06 going your life, man this brother is still popular. 26:11 Now, if you have one of these string things in your 26:15 Bible, I want you to put it here in 2 Chronicles 32. 26:21 Or you can put some notes there, 2 Chronicles 32, 26:24 I want you to put the string thing here and we are 26:29 going to turn to 2 Kings 20, 2 Kings 20, when you are 26:33 there say Amen! If you are not there say, have mercy. 26:37 Okay, 2 Kings Chapter 20, our we there? 26:42 Amen! alright, notice this with me. 26:46 So now this is right after God has delivered. 26:51 Sometimes when you are studying the Bible, you have to 26:54 study both accounts of a situation to pull all the 26:57 pieces together. 26:59 So we are turning to 2 Kings 20 which did not give us 27:04 the information we just got in 2 Chronicles 32. 27:06 So notice the timeline, he is exalted in the sight of 27:10 all nations from thence forth and God is guiding 27:13 him on every side. 27:14 He saved him from the hand of Sennacherib and now 27:16 2 Kings 20 is the exact next experience. 27:21 "In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the" 27:25 "Prophet Isaiah the son of Amos came to him and said" 27:29 "unto him, thus saith the Lord, set thine house in order" 27:33 "for thou shalt die, and not live. Then he turned his" 27:37 "face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord saying, I" 27:41 "beseech thee oh Lord, remember now how I have walked" 27:45 "before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have" 27:49 "done that which is good in thy sight. " 27:51 "And Hezekiah wept sore. " 27:53 You see Hezekiah was one of the greatest reformers in 27:58 the history of the nation since Solomon. 28:00 You only get so many reforms, so many wicked Kings and 28:05 now finally Israel gets a godly King. 28:08 They get a leader who knows how to spread it out before 28:12 the Lord, they get a GC President who knows how to come 28:15 before God with the prophet of Lord and say, Lord this 28:18 is what we need as a nation. 28:20 People of God, and he knows the power of prayer. 28:24 Now God comes and gives you a message and says, 28:29 get your house in order, because you are going to die. 28:33 You are not going to live from the sickness. 28:35 But Hezekiah believes that even though the prophet of 28:41 God gave him this message, 28:43 he still turns to God in prayer. 28:48 He says Lord, you know what I have done. 28:53 He weeps before God and in verse 4 the Bible says 28:57 this, "and it came to pass, before Isaiah was gone out" 29:01 "into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came" 29:06 "to him saying, turn again, and tell Hezekiah, the" 29:09 "the captain of my people, and thus saith the Lord," 29:13 "the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer. " 29:17 "I have seen thy tears:" 29:19 can you say Amen! "behold I will heal thee on the third" 29:23 "day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord. " 29:26 " And I will add unto thy days 15 years;" 29:29 How many years? How many years? Audience: 15. 29:31 He will add 15 years to Hezekiah's life. 29:35 Now notice this, "I will add unto thy days 15 years;" 29:41 "and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand" 29:45 "of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city" 29:49 "for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. " 29:53 " And Isaiah said, take a lump of figs. And they took" 29:57 "and laid it on the boils, and he recovered. " 29:59 You thought that natural remedies was a new thing. 30:02 Is right there in 2 Kings, figs on your boils. 30:06 I don't think you would use that today, I'm not sure. 30:08 So they take this lump of figs, his boils recover, 30:11 and what has happened now is he has come to God and 30:14 God has delivered him and he says hey. 30:19 Lord, you know how faithful I have sought to be to 30:22 bring your people back to Your word. 30:24 And God, before Isaiah is even out of the court, 30:29 he is in the middle court. 30:30 God had just sent him with the message are going to die 30:33 you're not going to live so set your house in order. 30:36 Isaiah leaves in you are going out and all of a sudden 30:39 the Lord comes upon you before you even leave the palace. 30:42 Hey turn back, tell him he is going to live. 30:46 I'm going to add 15 years. 30:50 Let me ask you a question, if you were on your deathbed 30:54 and God came to you by Revelation and told 31:01 you were going to die. 31:02 Then he came back and said I'm going to add 15 years 31:06 to your life, would you tell anyone? 31:10 Yes or no? 31:13 How many would you give a testimony GYC? 31:16 Amen! Something is happening. 31:22 I was supposed to die. 31:25 So now you had the situation that Hezekiah gets a 31:28 powerful experience. 31:29 Let's just say the story ended there. 31:31 Would that not be a powerful experience 31:32 in and of itself? 31:34 Yes, do you think that is something to be ashamed of? 31:39 No, let's keep reading, verse 8. 31:45 "Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, what shall be the sign that" 31:50 "Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the" 31:54 "house of the Lord the third day? 9. And Isaiah said," 31:58 this sign shall thou have of the Lord, that the Lord" 32:01 "will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the" 32:05 "shadow go forward 10°, Or go back 10°?" 32:09 Now I'm going to pause here and ask you what you think. 32:12 I took astronomy in college. 32:14 We had to make one of these sundials. 32:17 The thing that's in the middle that curves is called 32:20 the gnomon with a G. 32:21 You have to make sure you cut it according to the 32:25 latitude of where you were. 32:26 I was in Michigan when I was in college, so I had to 32:28 cut it according to something around 42°. 32:31 So after we cut the gnomon you have to face north, 32:34 and then based upon the shadow of the Sun, you see the 32:37 shadow fall and notice what time it is. 32:40 Each degree is somewhere around 10, 15, sometimes up 32:44 to 30 minutes depending. 32:48 So I made this sundial and I want to ask you a question. 32:50 If God told you today I'm going to work a miracle for 32:54 you, sister or brother, and I will give you a sign that 32:58 I'm going to work a miracle for you. 32:59 Here are your choices, the Sun can go down 15°, 33:04 or it can go back 10°. 33:07 How many of you would say go down? No one, right? 33:11 We wouldn't say that because the sun naturally goes 33:15 that direction, right? 33:17 Nothing miraculous, so you want your friends to say, 33:19 hey guys, look the sun, it's going down and God's 33:20 going to heal me. 33:22 People would look at you and say the sun goes down 33:26 every day and you think that is a sign from God. 33:30 So Hezekiah, like you and me, comes to God and says, 33:34 no, no, no, I want you to put the sun back 10°. 33:42 So God comes, and you know there is nothing too hard 33:44 for the Lord, Amen! 33:46 So God comes and this is what He does. 33:48 Verse 11, "and Isaiah the prophet cried into the Lord:" 33:53 "and he brought the shadow 10° backward, by which it had" 33:57 "gone down in the dial of Ahaz. " 34:00 So they had this sundial going back 10°, like I said, 34:04 it's about 30 minutes to an hour. 34:06 Now that is pretty significant, yes? 34:08 Let's say this 5 PM and Sabbath comes in around 34:11 5 o'clock, if Sabbath comes in at 5 and you move the 34:14 sun back an hour, you just got an 34:16 extra hour of daylight. 34:18 So you would notice the difference. 34:20 So you're walking back from outreach and the guys are 34:24 singing We're Marching to Zion and singing our songs 34:28 on the bus and all of a sudden as we arrive back at 34:31 the Louisville Convention Center the sun comes 34:34 back over the horizon. 34:36 Outreach isn't over, the bus goes in reverse. 34:39 Audience laughing. 34:41 You drive back out to the streets of Louisville. 34:44 Amen, one more hour to reach souls. 34:47 Now I want you to think about this. 34:51 If God moved the sun for you which you tell anybody? 34:54 Yes or no? Would you be ashamed? 35:01 So Hezekiah is a man that God moved the sun for. 35:07 The Sun was not even a miracle, it was just the sign 35:10 that I'm going to heal you. 35:14 Let's keep reading, verse 12. 35:17 "At that time Berodachbaladan," don't try to pronounce 35:23 it, "the sun of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters" 35:29 "and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that" 35:34 "Hezekiah had been," what? "sick. " 35:36 So he had heard Hezekiah had been sick and wanted to 35:41 send gifts, and he sends this entourage, he sends letters 35:45 and a present, verse 13. 35:47 "And Hezekiah hearkened unto them, and he showed them" 35:51 notice that next word, three letters, what is it? 35:53 What is it? He showed them what? "All". 35:58 "All the house of his precious things, the silver, and" 36:04 "the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment," 36:09 and then that word appears again, what's that three 36:14 letter word? "and all the house of his armor, and all" 36:19 "that was found in his treasures: there was," 36:22 how much? "Nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion" 36:29 "that Hezekiah showed them not. " 36:34 So they show up, here are some presents, some gifts, 36:37 all, all, all and what did I not show you? 36:40 There was nothing I didn't show you. 36:42 Right when he did that, the prophet Isaiah strolls along 36:46 like a faithful messenger, even if God calls me to say 36:50 the opposite message of what he told me to do, Isaiah 36:53 is a faithful messenger. 36:55 He shows up right on time. 36:58 He comes in verse 14, "then came Isaiah the prophet" 37:01 "unto the king Hezekiah, and he said unto him," 37:05 "what said these men? And from whence came they unto" 37:07 "thee? And Hezekiah said, they have common from a far" 37:10 "country, even from Babylon. " 37:12 Now how many questions did Isaiah ask him? 37:15 How many questions? Two, what were those questions? 37:20 What said these men, and from where did they come. 37:25 Which question did he not answer? 37:26 What said these men, right, now you know what happens 37:30 when you ask people a question and they 37:31 don't answer you. 37:33 There is some conviction, right? 37:35 You can always tell the story, it's not about my brother TJ, 37:39 it's actually about my brother Royce, 37:41 to illustrate this point. 37:42 Before I was a Christian I used to spend a lot of 37:45 money on shoes. 37:46 So I had these Air Jordan thirteenths, 37:49 the baby blue ones, maybe you remember. 37:51 Some of us are old, like me. 37:55 $165 shoes. 37:59 So I brought these Jordan's and I used to be extremely 38:02 fastidious about my shoes. 38:05 So I have shoes right now in my house that are probably 38:09 10 to 12 years old and you would never know. 38:11 I used to clean my shoes every day when I got home from 38:15 school, but my Jordan's, I never wore them all the time. 38:18 So my younger brother Royce, we used to share a room. 38:21 So Royce would say hey Saab, that's what they used to 38:25 call me, he'd say, Saab can I borrow your shoes? 38:26 Absolutely not! 38:28 My brother was in middle school and I was in high school. 38:29 Unlike, those shoes are 165 dollars. 38:32 Come on Saab, just let me wear your shoes. 38:36 I think he was in eighth grade. 38:38 I'm like, no you are not wearing my shoes. 38:39 So one day, I don't know what came upon me, but somehow 38:43 some sense of kindness entered my heart. 38:47 I call it insanity. 38:50 Saab can I borrow your shoes? Sure! 38:54 Now in my mind I'm thinking he's in eighth grade. 38:56 What could possibly happen, and it was a day that it 38:59 was raining outside, and I thought that's okay I'll just 39:02 clean them when he gets home. 39:03 So of course we go to school and come home from school 39:07 and I roll in like a prophet Isaiah. 39:09 Hey man, how was your day? Where are my shoes? 39:12 Audience laughing! 39:15 Oh my day was great! Where are my shoes? 39:22 I used to have a little shelf in my closet where I kept 39:26 my shoes and I would put a nice drapery over my shoes 39:29 so they wouldn't get dust. 39:31 Hey, unashamed. Audience laughing. 39:37 So I go to my closet and you can hear the music right? 39:40 Dunne, done, done, done, and I pulled the drape back. 39:45 Ahhhhhhh! I look at my shoes and a girl's name was 39:49 signed in pink marker. On my Jordan's. 39:53 I'm not going to tell you the rest of the story, 39:56 but he is still alive. 40:02 When you are asking people a question and they 40:04 don't answer you, you know there is some 40:07 conviction of something. 40:09 And this is Hezekiah so Isaiah goes on to drive the 40:13 message home, follow this. 40:16 Verse 15, "and he says, what have they seen in thine" 40:21 "house? And Hezekiah answered, all the things that are" 40:25 "in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among" 40:31 "my" what? "treasures that I have not showed them. " 40:36 Verse 16, "and Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, hear the word" 40:41 "of the Lord. 17. Behold, the days come, that all that" 40:44 "is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid" 40:48 "up in-store unto this day," this isn't just about what 40:51 Hezekiah has accumulated, this goes all the way back to 40:54 Solomon, everything that the house of David has 40:58 accumulated, rest upon your choice at this time. 41:04 So now you have come with the accumulated riches of 41:08 David, of Solomon, of Josiah, of Joash, all accumulated 41:12 in the house of God. 41:14 Right there under your hands, in your possession you 41:17 have showed them everything. 41:18 He said the days are coming where all that is in your 41:22 house, Hezekiah verse 17, "and that which your fathers" 41:25 "have laid up in-store unto this day, shall be carried" 41:28 "into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. " 41:31 18. "And of thy sons that show issue from thee, which" 41:35 "thou shall beget, shall they take away; and they shall" 41:38 "be eunuchs In the palace of the king of Babylon. " 41:40 Now want you to think to yourself, is there another book 41:43 in the Bible that talks about riches being taken from 41:46 the house of Jerusalem? 41:48 Yes, what book is that? The book of Daniel. 41:52 Any book talks about Jews or eunuchs in the 41:55 palace of Babylon? 41:57 The book of? Did you know that Daniel's book exists 42:01 because of this situation? 42:08 The question is why is the punishment so harsh? 42:10 Why is it that all that is in my house is going to be 42:13 carried into Babylon? 42:15 Why is it that everything my father's have accumulated 42:18 until now, it's going to be carried into Babylon, 42:21 including not my riches only, but my own children? 42:24 And my descendents? 42:26 To be a eunuch meant you had to be castrated. 42:29 Because Kings did not trust eunuchs to not sleep with 42:33 their women and their concubines. 42:35 Daniel was in the palace of Babylon because of Hezekiah. 42:44 Now I told you to keep that string there, yes? 42:45 Go back to 2 Chronicles 32. 42:52 2 Chronicles 32. 43:00 Are you there? Verse 24, "in those days Hezekiah was" 43:05 "sick unto the death, and prayed unto the Lord: and he" 43:10 "spake unto him, and he gave him a sign. " 43:12 What was that sign? He did what? 43:15 He moved the sun, yes? 43:17 He gave him a sign, verse 25, "but Hezekiah rendered" 43:22 "not again according to the benefit done unto him;" 43:27 "for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath" 43:32 "upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem. " 43:34 "26. Notwithstanding, Hezekiah humbled himself for the" 43:39 "pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem" 43:43 "so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the" 43:46 "days of Hezekiah. 27. And Hezekiah had exceeding riches" 43:50 "riches and gold, 31. Howbeit in the business of the" 43:54 "ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto" 43:59 "him to inquire of the" the what? "wonder that was done" 44:04 "in the land, God had left him, to try him, that he" 44:08 "might know all that was in his heart. " 44:10 What was the wonder friends? What was the wonder? 44:14 God moved the sun, why is that important to Babylon? 44:17 Guess what they worshiped? The sun! 44:22 So you are sitting there in Babylon and are bowing down 44:24 to the sun and all the sudden you look up and the sun 44:27 starts moving, whoop, whoa! 44:28 And this is crazy, and all of a sudden you go back to 44:32 your house and grab a cup of coffee and pick up your 44:36 Babylonian times, and look at the newspaper. 44:38 Hezekiah's God moves the sun, and the sun is my god. 44:42 So if your God moves my god then who's 44:45 God is more powerful? 44:47 We need to go inquire of the wonder and you show me 44:49 everything in your house, but that is not what 44:52 I wanted to see. 44:53 God says, Hezekiah, I saved you from Sennacherib. 44:59 I gave you a sign, I moved the sun for you. 45:04 I brought Babylon to your feet and I just wanted you to 45:11 witness for Me, just this one time. 45:16 Just this one time. 45:19 You could have changed the course of human history. 45:24 Babylon could have become a nation following the true 45:29 God and now Daniel's had to do what Hezekiah 45:35 had failed to do. 45:39 You see friends, hold off on the music, one second. 45:44 You see friends, God has not moved the physical sun for 45:50 you and me, He moved the Son of God. 45:53 Is that all I can get as a Amen? 45:56 Audience: Amen! 45:58 He did not move a celestial star made of Hydrogen for 46:03 you, He moved He in whom all things consist. 46:06 He took Him by whom all things were created. 46:10 Jesus is the only One who has seen the Father at any 46:14 time, and now He comes down to earth, humbles Himself 46:17 so that You can see the Father. 46:20 If you have seen Me then you have seen the Father. 46:24 Here you have Jesus on His throne, in heaven, and God 46:28 moves His Son for you. 46:31 They come to your house and we want to talk about how we 46:34 have great veggie meat factories. 46:37 They come to your house and we want to talk about how 46:41 good our health system is, look how good our educational 46:44 system is and God has blessed us as church. 46:48 But when people come to the feet, they came to 46:52 inquire of the wonder. 46:54 God didn't lead them to you to talk about all our trophies. 46:57 All our precious things in our house and it says all his 47:00 treasures, is Jesus not your treasure? 47:02 When someone comes and talks to you, do you give them the 47:07 most precious thing to you? 47:11 Or are we like Hezekiah, we don't render again according 47:14 to the benefits done to us. 47:19 Ellen White says, I hear people speak of the fact it is 47:21 so hard for me to give all to God. 47:24 She says, when Jesus gave everything for you. 47:27 I'm ashamed to speak it, I'm ashamed to write it. 47:30 How can you withhold from Jesus? 47:32 Jesus withheld nothing from you and me. 47:35 When we go to the gas station, when we are at the 47:38 Convention Center, when we are going down the elevator 47:41 God says can you just win this one for Me? 47:43 Just this one time! 47:44 Can you tell them about the wonder, can you tell them 47:49 about how I saved you from Sennacherib? 47:51 You don't have to break down a Bible study, just talk 47:54 about a "but now" experience. 47:56 Talk about where you were blind and how you see. 47:59 Talk about where you were drunk, and now you are sober. 48:01 Talk about the fact that you use to be out there in the 48:04 world and listening to the Devil's music, being about 48:07 the Devil's business and now I'm about God's business. 48:11 It always breaks my heart, when I was in hip-hop we 48:14 would get on the bus with big head phones and rapping 48:17 our songs as loud as we want. 48:18 Christians are afraid to get on the bus and sing 48:20 Amazing Grace. 48:22 A song with a real message. 48:25 It came from a real heart that knows how to grapple 48:28 with the real issues of life. 48:31 God's like, just this one time. 48:35 Friends we can't be messing around with opportunities to 48:38 share your Jesus. 48:40 Unbeknown to you, like Hezekiah, that could be the moment 48:44 where you could change the course of human history. 48:51 The mission of GYC, to proclaim the 3 Angels Messages to 48:57 all the world in this generation. 49:02 GYC, God comes before you and me, laying before you and I 49:09 the deliverance, the miracles, the ways that He has blessed 49:16 us and He says can you not witness for Me 49:19 just this one time? 49:25 Friends if we do our work, we will go home. 49:28 Are you hearing me? If we do our work, we will go home. 49:34 No more GYC, nor more Divine service and you can't get 49:39 a real message, you are going to go to heaven and say 49:44 our speaker this morning is the Holy Spirit. 49:46 Audience: Amen! 49:48 You are going to be sitting down in church and angels are 49:50 like, is that seat taken? 49:52 No Gabriel, you can sit there. 49:53 Where are you going right now? I have a lunch appointment 49:57 with Abraham under the tree. 49:59 If we do our work, we will go home, Jesus says it will happen 50:05 And because of that God is just like, just this one time. 50:11 Think about how He moved Jesus for you! |
Revised 2014-12-17