(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, so Isaiah chapter 39, it's kind of a shorter chapter, only eight verses. Let's jump right into this, actually, before we even jump into this, just so you remember at the end of chapter 38, essentially, or in chapter 38, Hezekiah had a disease in which he was going to die from it, and God had sent Isaiah to let him know, hey, get your house in order, because basically you're going to die. So Hezekiah then entreats the Lord, he kind of turns away, he turns towards the wall, he prays unto God, you know, God, like, remember all that I've done, you know, and kind of ask for some mercy, and God hears his prayer, and grants unto him an extra 15 years of life. So he ends up being healed, he recovers at the end of chapter 38, and God heals him, and he says, okay, well, I'm going to give you 15 more years to live, which is amazing, right? Praise God, it's a great healing of Hezekiah. And also, before we get into chapter 39, it's important to note, I brought this up a couple weeks ago, that Hezekiah also is known as, he was a very great king, like he was a good man of God, he did a lot of things for the Lord, he served the Lord with all of his heart, he's actually one of the very few kings that's actually, you know, King David was kind of a standard of righteous kings that when people are being compared to, they're very, very commonly compared to King David. In a similar fashion, on the opposite side, you know, Jeroboam the son of Nebat was someone who was on the bad side of things, like as a negative example of a king, that he caused the children of Israel to sin, and they're saying like, well, you know, he did worse than Jeroboam the son of Nebat, or Nintu is good, you know, so you have these two different examples of kings and Bible that you can hear over and over again. Hezekiah is one of those ones, though, that he kind of matches that faith that David had, and serving the Lord with all of his heart, and just having this desire and this heart to serve God. Also, the humility, which we're going to end up seeing, not in Isaiah 39, but in a parallel passage for Isaiah 39, that even when Hezekiah does wrong, and he gets lifted up with some side, he ends up humbling himself and getting right with God. And this is some of the great attributes of Hezekiah just in general. So we are going to focus on things that he did that are not right here in Isaiah 39. So we're going to look at some of the bad things, and hopefully we can learn from them. But overall, this isn't a slam on Hezekiah just in general as a person, because overall, he lived a good life. But you know what? People have recorded these things that happened here, and they're all here for our learning and our admonition. So we're going to learn what we can from this example of Hezekiah, good and bad, right? Everything that he's done, both good and bad. So let's dig into this here, now getting that whole backdrop there, the back story. Verse number one, it says, at that time, Merodach, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that he had been sick and was recovered. So a lot of people heard about this great healing of Hezekiah. Obviously, it reached really far, and at this time, remember, we know that Babylon is going to carry away the children of Israel captive, but at this time, they're not perceived as any threat, as any great superpower or people who are going to come and just conquer and conquer and conquer. That's not how they were viewed in the world as far as just what people's view of Babylon was. It's like, oh man, these people, they're from really far away. It's just like these people came from this land, they're from really far, and he kind of feels special that they would come and bring presents unto him. Little does he know, that's going to be the same people that are going to end up coming and taking all of the children of Israel or Judah captive and carrying them away captive in less than 100 years, essentially. But verse number two says, And Hezekiah was glad of them and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver and the gold and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not. So they come in, and Hezekiah, obviously what he's doing here is boasting in all of these possessions. And it's going to be more clear if you say, well, Pastor Burns, how do you really get that from this passage? Well, it's not just this passage, we're going to see the other parallel passages, it's going to just completely spell it out for us anyways. But just the fact that it's listing off what he showed them, oh, he's showing them his spices, his silver, his gold, and the Bible just makes it clear, he's saying, there is nothing in his house that he doesn't show them. And you know how this is, you know when you're around a person who's lifted up and they're full of themselves, they're full of all this stuff, and they want to invite you over and be like, well, look at this, and look at my collection of this, and look at this, of people who are real proud of whatever it is they have. And look, we probably all have dealt with this on our own at some point in our life. You probably had some collection of things that you were really proud of that you had, you know, for me it was my music collection, I'd like to show people, if someone came over, oh man, hey, check out what I got here, I got these bootlegs and this stuff from this concert or whatever, whatever, right? Whatever it is that you're into, whatever it was, baseball, football, whatever, memorabilia, things like that, people have all these different hobbies and things where they have these collections. And you know, it's not right just to be lifted up with pride over this stuff, because stuff is meaningless anyways, but what we're seeing here, there's a guy that's not even just one thing, I mean, he's showing them, man, check out all my gold, check out all the silver, check out this, this, this, he's just showing them everything, I mean, he's just lifted up with all the abundance of the possessions that he has. And it's more of, he's getting this attention on him instead of giving the glory to the Lord, right, God healed him, he was very humble and weeping when he was asking to be spared, but now all of a sudden when people are bringing gifts to him, and oh, how are you, you know, all concerned about him, now it's just, well, look at what I have here, and look at what I have here, and all these great things, and the great things about me, right? The attitude has changed in Hezekiah, and in fact, what's really interesting, we'll get to this in a little bit more detail, these 15 years that Hezekiah receives, from what we can see that's recorded in scripture, it's not really a blessing. Yes, he's given more days, but there's really nothing much positive that we read any further about the life of Hezekiah after he gets those extra 15 years. We hear a lot about what he had done prior to that, you know, how he caused Israel to basically worship the Lord and hold Passover like it was never held before, and you know, did a lot of great, had a lot of great successes for the Lord, but like, nothing is mentioned after he's given more time, right, so he gets this extra time, he kind of squanders it. Let's keep reading here, verse number three, the Bible says, Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? And from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon. So here's what he's saying, you know, just, they're from this country way far away, you know, they came and made this trek over here to see me. Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them. Now, before we even get any further, he's saying, look, I just showed them everything, and just a little bit of wisdom for you, you know, when you have guests come over to your house, don't show everybody, anybody, you know, don't just try bringing people in and just showing them all of your treasures and all of your valuables and everything that you have in your house. You're kind of asking to get robbed when you do that. Because what's going to happen, even if it's not the specific people that you might bring into your house, you start making a big deal, all this stuff, people are going to start talking about that. It could be a friend of a friend, you know, this type of stuff happens. So if you have these precious things, these valuables, there's no reason to put it all out on display. You know, I'm not bringing everyone into my house and opening up my safe and going, Hey, look at all of my most valuable things that I own, and just, you know, like, you don't want to do that. And especially with people that you don't, I mean, these people were foreign, I mean, he doesn't know these people at all. These people from Babylon are just like, Hey, come on in and just expose everything to you and the whole world, this is what we got, look at everything here. Wow, that looks pretty good, I think we want to come back here and, you know, clear this place out, which is what they do. They take everything. And this is why Isaiah tells them he's rebuking them here. Now, obviously, there's a lot that plays into Babylon coming and defeating the children of Israel. But this is definitely one thing, one little piece of wisdom you can learn from this is don't just start opening up all that you have to just show random people because you're so proud and lifted up in what you possess. No one needs to know. Right? And that'll just be a little nugget to keep stored away. If you can say, well, Pastor Burns doesn't really have anything anyways, fine, whatever. But maybe one day God will bless you with a whole bunch of stuff and you don't want to just go broadcasting all the stuff and get lifted up in that because you might just lose it. Right? Easy come, easy go. So he tells Isaiah that, you know, I showed him everything. There's nothing I didn't show him. Verse five. Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord of hosts, behold, the days come that all that is in thine house and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. Like, well, you showed him everything, nothing's going to be left. Not even just your stuff, but everything, you know, the fathers before you have been laying up this treasure and kind of carrying things forward and accumulating and you know what? It's all going to be gone. Verse seven, and of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away. It's like your own children, they're going to take away. And he says, this is interesting too, he says, which thou shalt beget. So the kids he hasn't even birthed yet because he's been granted this extra 15 years, right? He says they're going to take them away and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. No father is going to want their child to end up becoming a eunuch, okay? A eunuch is a servant, it's going to be a servant in for the king of Babylon, but not just a servant, your son's going to lose their manhood basically is what that means. Okay, they're going to be castrated and serving this other king in Babylon. Now, I believe that Isaiah 39 is written in such a way to present another truth here. Just in general, when we see Hezekiah's response, now there is more to this story in between verses seven and eight, but I think that this is given in such a way to draw a connection here and a truth that we need to learn from, we're going to look in a little while at some more things that kind of adds a little bit of insight into this response, but this response is pretty weird. He just gets told that his sons are going to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon, and look what he says in verse eight. Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. What? You were just told that your sons are going to be eunuchs serving in Babylon, and you're saying good is the word of the Lord, which, you know, obviously we know that every word of God is pure and true and we love the word of God, but look, this is a curse against Hezekiah, right? You're not going to be rejoicing over some curse against you. He said moreover, and this is where he's going to clarify a little bit, for there shall be peace and truth in my days. So he's saying, well, good is the word of the Lord, because at least I'm going to have some peace for my days, because this isn't going to happen to him during his lifetime. He was granted the extra 15 years, and you know what, he's going to live out those rest of his years in peace without Babylon coming and, you know, doing this right now. So he's just saying, well, great, it's not going to happen for me, and like I said, there is some more that happens in between here, but the way that this is recounted and told in Isaiah 39, I think, is to show us a little bit of this attitude that Hezekiah had that was wicked and wrong and not investing enough in his own children and caring about the future, right? Especially the future of his own posterity of his own children, of his own family. I mentioned before, Hezekiah did a lot of great works for the Lord. I mean, he was a great guy. He did all kinds of great things and was involved in these great works, and stopping the water and doing all this other stuff. The Bible records all these great things that he was involved in and these projects that he had done, and serving God with all his might. Great things, amen. But this is something that I think everybody needs to look out for, and especially people who end up, you know, leaders, pastors, people who want to serve the Lord, need to watch out and beware and make sure that you're paying enough heed to your own family and your own children that you don't get so caught up and distracted with everything else that's going on and being in the limelight and being the center of attention that you end up, you know, causing damage on your children in the future as they grow up, and you haven't imparted unto them what you should have imparted unto them, and you fail at your job of fathering. Yes, you might have done a great job as a leader. You might have done a great work for God in certain capacities, but you end up failing at home. And this is something that definitely Hezekiah did do, and if you turn to 2 Kings chapter 21, we'll see, because Manasseh is his son, and Manasseh is his son that ends up reigning right after, when Hezekiah dies, Manasseh is going to reign, and Manasseh was one of the worst kings of Judah ever. Like we're going to read a little bit about what Manasseh does, but not only, look, it's one thing to have an adult son of someone else who ends up being wicked and doing some wicked things, right, because everyone has to make your own choices and decisions in this life. But Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign, and right off the bat, he's starting doing wicked things and not serving the Lord. His dad served the Lord like no other before him. His dad is the one that held the great Passover, his dad is the one that was trying to get all the hearts of the people and serving the Lord, and he did it with sincerity, he did it in the integrity of his heart, and God knew and saw that and even granted him extra years because of his service, because of how righteous he was in general, but he had this great feeling at home. Look at 2 Kings 21, and I think this all boils down to this attitude of, well hey, at least goods were the Lord, for there should be peace and truth in my days, because he wasn't putting enough emphasis on his own children and their future. Verse number 1 of 2 Kings 21, the Bible says Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign and reigned 50 and 5 years in Jerusalem, his mother's name was Hephzibah, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. Look at this in verse 3, for he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed. So all the work that Hezekiah did, his son is undoing this, starting at age 12. Now age 12 is still very young, my daughter Elizabeth is going to be 12 this month. Just for those of you that may or may not know what a 12 year old looks like, look at my daughter Elizabeth, that's what a 12 year old looks like. I can't imagine if I were to die today and she had to do anything in my stead, I couldn't imagine her completely doing the opposite of everything that I've done. I mean it would just be so foreign to me to think that one of my children can be so against what I've been doing. Maybe not be able to, any child, of course you're not going to expect them to be right up to par with someone, especially someone like Hezekiah, he's doing all this great work, you know, okay well his 12 year old isn't going to necessarily be at the same level as him, but at least on the same page, at least like serving the same God. But no, here he is, he comes into power and he's building up the high places that Hezekiah destroyed and he reared up altars for Baal and made a grove as did Ahab king of Israel and worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served them, verse 4, and he built altars in the house of the Lord of which the Lord sent Jerusalem where I put my name and he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord and he made his son pass through the fire and observed times and used enchantments and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. He wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. And you can read on and on and on, I'm not going to go through this, if you keep reading chapter 21 there, you're just going to read more and more and more and more and more about all the wicked things that Manasseh does. Manasseh fills the land basically with all this innocent blood. Manasseh makes it so where God is just like, I have to judge because of this now. God has this leeway, God has this mercy, God deals with his people and his people will get to these varying points where he's going, okay well now I'm going to judge you, now I'm going to have something happen. And then they come back to him and there's kind of this back and forth thing. Under the leadership of Manasseh, under his kingdom, he ends up pushing things so far that when Josiah comes around, he's the grandson of Manasseh, when he comes, Josiah had this great fervent spirit to serve the Lord, man we're going to serve God like no other. He was this last one to just kind of have this last great reign of man, we are going to serve God with all of our might and with all of our hearts. It didn't matter. None of the good works that Josiah did, all it did was just stay off that judgment, but the Bible says that God just, because of all the things that Manasseh had done, it has to come, the judgment has to come. They're going to be taken away captive, you're going into captivity, and it was all these wicked things that happened during this reign of Manasseh, and even Manasseh himself though, he ends up getting right with God near the end of his life. But he had done so much destruction and so many bad things, all you can do, all I can do when I see this information, when I can see the way that the Bible's presenting this and look at Hezekiah and go, you failed. You failed. You succeeded in many other areas, you failed as a father. The Bible says, train up a child in the way you should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Okay, that's a true statement from Proverbs. Hezekiah failed as a father. His son ends up getting into witchcraft, enchantments, familiar spirits, all this wickedness, serving Baal, Satan worshiping. Flip over if you would to 2 Chronicles chapter 32. We need to have the proper balance in your Christian life. We need to look at that. Because on the one hand, you have the verses that's going to say, like Jesus said, you can't be my disciple. If you don't hate your mother and your father, your sister, your brother, your son, daughter, all those things, you can't be my disciple. But you've got to balance that with being able to still have the love and dedication to your family to raise them properly. So obviously you have to understand what is Jesus talking about when He makes that statement. Well, obviously we shouldn't have anything come between us and God. God gets the number one place in our life. Because there are plenty of people who will put other people and other things before God, so it's a very important teaching. They say, look, you want to follow me, you want to be my disciple, you need to be willing to do what I'm telling you to do, you need to be willing to make sacrifices, you need to have me first. And not to say, well, I can't serve you, God, because I need to do X, Y, or Z. No, that should never be in your heart. You should say, I will serve you with my utmost, just like Abraham proved his faith when he offered up Isaac, he was going to offer him up as a burnt sacrifice. He wasn't going to withhold even his son from the Lord, if God's telling me to do this, then this is what I'm going to do. Obviously he had the faith that God was able to raise him again from the dead. We know that God didn't want to kill him, and we know even Abraham, because of his faith, he understood that God made a promise to him, and that of his seed, he was going to bless him and bless all the nations of the earth, and that ultimately Christ was going to come from his seed. He knew many things, and he understood enough that if God's telling me to kill him, well, apparently here we must just be enacting the death, the burial, and resurrection of Christ through Isaac. And again, how much did he completely understand? Doesn't matter, but he knew, the Bible tells us in Hebrews 11 that he had the faith and knew that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. And when he told his servants that they were going up, knowing full well what he was already told he was supposed to do, he told them that they were both coming back again. He told his servants that they were coming back. And you can look into that as a great story, great symbolism and everything there. But Abraham had that faith, and nothing was coming between him and the Lord. And that's what Jesus is expressing to us and to his disciples, that look, you need to have that faith where you're not going to hold anything back from God, you're not going to let anything come in between your relationship with him. But at the same time, it's critical that we have this vision for your children and your family in being able to raise them and raise them properly and try to give them all the wisdom. Now look, everyone has their own decisions to make, yes, but good night, the Bible teaches over and over, and especially in the book of Proverbs, on rearing up your child and training up your child on the way you should go. And I mean, how many times in the first nine chapters of Proverbs are all pretty much starting off with my son, my son, my son, hear the words of my wisdom, my son, hear the words of the law, my son, listen to me, my son, give ear, my son, pay attention, listen up. The wisdom, the book of wisdom is being passed down from father to son and being taught. Look, this is so important, you cannot look past this. In all of your service to the Lord, you have to be able to raise your family and raise your children well and raise them in the Lord. I mean, it's one of the qualifications even for being a pastor. You have to be able to rule your house well. I would say that Hezekiah didn't end up ruling his house well. He was ruling the kingdom, but he wasn't able to rule his house well when his son grows up and becomes a Satan worshiper and destroys all the work that he had done. It can be easy to get distracted. And here's the thing, should Hezekiah not have done the works that he'd done? No, he should have done that and been a good dad. And I'm sure that ruling a kingdom isn't an easy job to have. I mean, I know that I'm busy with stuff, but I don't have the responsibility of the weight of a kingdom on my shoulders. But you know what? It's all of our jobs, you have to make it work. You have to make it happen. And you have to have the love and the care, right, because it's kind of a cold statement that he makes. Well, at least there's good times in my days. Yeah, my children are going to be castrated, but at least I won't have to see it. It's a bad attitude to have. Second Chronicles chapter 32. Now we're going to get a little bit more context, though, into that weird statement where it just kind of just seems like he's going from hearing his bad news to just saying, well, everything's all good. There is more in between. So let's dig in a little bit in Second Chronicles chapter 32, and we're going to start reading verse number 22. The Bible says, thus the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all other and guided them on every side. So we're going back, because it's going to cover a lot of the things we already read in Isaiah over the past few weeks in a real short period of time. So now it's saying how they were saved from Sennacherib, right? Sennacherib dies, his own sons kill him. And then it says in verse 23, and many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from thenceforth. So one, because of their victory over Sennacherib and with that happen, where they were just basically shown, they were the one nation where they were going around defeating everyone else. And then he was like, no, we trusted in the Lord. And then so many of their troops just died, they had to go back, and everything else, they basically just crumbled from that point on. Well, that brings a great name to Hezekiah. And then on top of that, Hezekiah is healed from this deadly disease that he has as well. God spares him. So he really gets lifted up and magnified in the sight of all nations. The Bible says from thenceforth, from that day forward, Hezekiah's name was really exalted and lifted up in the world. Verse 24, in those days, Hezekiah was sick to the death, and prayed unto the Lord, and he spake unto him, and he gave him a sign. But Hezekiah, and this is where there's some that we didn't read in Isaiah, verse 25, but Hezekiah rendered not again, according to the benefit done unto him, for his heart was lifted up, therefore, there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem. So God shows this benefit unto Hezekiah, but Hezekiah doesn't show his gratitude unto the Lord for what the Lord had done unto him, and he allows himself just to get lifted up and full of himself. God spares his life. God blesses him. God is the one who brought that great victory, too, by the way, that caused Hezekiah's name to be lifted up. He didn't even have to go fight. The angel of the Lord came and destroyed through the host, and they were all dead corpses in the morning. You remember the story, right? So it was not the might of Hezekiah, even in any capacity whatsoever, you can never take that responsibility for what God had done, right? So God saves Israel. God saves Judah here. God saves Hezekiah physically. He didn't do anything. He was already told he was going to heal and saw the sign of the sundial going, remember the dial of Ahaz, going back 10 degrees? And then they put the fig leaves on or whatever, you know, so it's like all this stuff happened. It was obviously the Lord doing everything, nothing on his own, yet Hezekiah does not end up turning around and exalting the name of the Lord. Instead he exalts himself. This is where we see very clearly that that is what happened, that that is the case. We saw a lot of the verbiage in Isaiah 39 of all the things that he lists off, that he's boasting about and showing all this stuff off, but this tells us just very clearly that's what happened and that's why wrath was upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem. Look, because of Hezekiah's pride then, it's not just, you know, wrath upon him, it's upon Judah and Jerusalem as well. Verse 26, but then look at this, notwithstanding, so even though all this stuff happened, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart. So when Hezekiah ends up being confronted with his pride, this is where he humbles his heart and ends up getting right with God, which again is a great attribute, it's similar to David. David committed some horrible sins, but he humbled his heart and brought himself low in the eyes of the Lord and repented, which was the difference with King Saul, right? King Saul never ended up humbling himself. He never wanted to face what he had done wrong or accept his guilt and own the responsibility of what he had done wrong and repenting. He never really did that. Hezekiah did that, David did that though. So here it says he humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah. So now you're going to start to understand why he's saying, well, good is the word of the Lord, because they were going to get that judgment right away. God was just upset with them, you know, for the pride of his heart, but because he humbled himself, because the people humbled themselves, God says, okay, I won't do this to you right now. So in that light, his statements make a little bit more sense, where you can say, how could he even say that? Well, because if you were expecting to get it right away, and then God shows mercy on you and extends that off, now you can see where he's saying, oh, okay, well, this is why he's saying good is the word of the Lord. Like I said, I think there's meaning for that not being included in Isaiah 39 is to draw the connection and draw that point home for us, the reader, to be able to see that truth and still get the whole story, because we know that in other scripture that we get more full context. But the point was trying to be given there in that extra learning to show some of the failures of Hezekiah that we should be able to learn from. Verse number 27, and Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honor, and he made himself treasuries for silver and for gold and for precious stones and for spices and for shields and for all manner of pleasant jewels, storehouses also for the increase of corn and wine and oil and stalls for all manner of beasts and coats for flocks. So basically what he's doing is he has so much stuff, he just keeps building more and more warehouses and places, whether it's for livestock, for goods, for all this stuff, he just keeps on building up more places just to store the wealth that he's accumulated. And we're going to look at another parallel passage, actually turn if you would to Luke chapter 12, the Bible says in verse 29, moreover he provided him cities and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance, for God had given him substance very much. Luke chapter 12, we see the warning against this type of behavior and having this mindset of just, well let's just keep storing all this stuff up and amassing all this wealth and just holding onto it. Luke 12 verse 15, the Bible says, and he said unto them, take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Now when those people from Babylon came and sent gifts, this shows you where his heart was because if you're truly walking with that understanding that, you know what, I may have a lot of this stuff, but this isn't what my life is all about, you ought to be, what's on your heart should be the things that you are all about, especially if you have strangers coming and visiting you and asking of your welfare and kind of wanting to know a little bit about you, what are you going to tell them? He tells them about all of his goods. His life at that point ended up consisting of all the goods that he had. And the covetousness and the lifted up heart all reflected that. Thankfully he ends up getting right with God, but this ends up destroying him and destroying his posterity because he allowed himself to get lifted up and caught up in all those possessions. And this is something that everybody needs to take heed, like Jesus said here in verse 15, take heed. Take heed. Beware. Look, man is no different today than man has ever been. We're all human beings, we all have these lusts of our flesh, we all have these desires, and we have to try to take heed and beware of covetousness because it's an easy trap to fall into into getting carried away with the things and abundance and riches of this life. And especially if God blesses you, amen, right, there's nothing wrong with being blessed by God of having material possessions, there's nothing sinful or wicked or wrong about anyone who has earthly treasures. But don't, if that's you, don't let those things consume you and distract you and end up becoming what your life is all about. Take heed, take stock, and maybe look back and say, hey, is my life about Christ? You know what the Bible says, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Is to live Christ to you? Right now it should be, hopefully it is, hopefully that's where you're at in your spiritual walk. Hopefully the things that you do in this life is to serve Christ with, if it's not we should be moving in that direction, you should be trying to do more to make sure your life is about serving Christ and not other things, but take heed because what happens sometimes is that right now you may be in the right walk, right now you may be serving Christ, right now you have that great mindset and maybe because you don't have very many things, but then all of a sudden you end up coming into some fortune or some wealth or whatever and before you know it, you're getting involved in more stuff, you have all these extra money and you're doing this and you're doing that and you got all this other stuff going on, now all of a sudden your life is more about just all these other things because it came along and distracted you and now your life is wrapped up into all this other stuff instead of serving the Lord. Instead of your life being on Christ, you end up without even realizing it, just turning into a covetous person and your life is about the possession and abundance of things than it is about what you're doing. See, if your life is about serving Christ, when you have people come and visit you and talk to you and want to know what you're doing, you should be talking to them about the things that are in your heart and be like, yeah man, we serve the Lord, we had this great Passover, do you guys hear about that Passover? Oh man, God did this great miracle, the dial of Ahaz, thank God, saved my life. These are the things that Hezekiah should be talking to strangers about. Not going, hey, check this out, I got these cool peacocks and, you know, I think about all the stuff that Solomon had, right, all these great treasures and stuff and just bring them, oh yeah, check out these spices and check out this gold and this silver, look at all this stuff, man. Have you ever seen so much gold before in your life, huh? That's what he was doing. His life was not right, he was not right with God, he was lifted up in these things. Let's keep reading in Luke 12, look at verse 16, the Bible says, and he spake a parable unto them saying, the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. Hey, great, right, praise God that God is blessing you and your ground is bringing forth plentifully because God blessed you to allow that to happen. Nothing wrong with that happening, it's what do you do with it? Verse 17, and he thought within himself saying, what shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, this will I do, I will pull down my barns and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods and I will say to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. Doesn't this kind of sound like what Hezekiah was doing? Wow, you've got all this abundance, so what does he do? He builds greater storehouses and he builds greater barns and stables and great, you know, just, I'm just going to build bigger things to hold all my stuff. Not the same attitude that we see in Acts chapter four and five, right? What happens there? People who had possessions, what are they doing? They're selling it. People who had a bunch of abundance and God's blessed them, what are they doing? They just want the work of the ministry to go forward so that people don't have any lack. So it's like, hey, I've got some stuff, God's really blessed me, well, let's use it, let's use it for the kingdom of Christ's sake, let's use it for God's sake to do some good with instead of me just sitting on it. Look, like I said before, there's nothing wrong with having things, but we can't just be so focused on just building and retaining more stuff. Whatever God's blessed you with, use it. Use it. Use it for the furtherance of the gospel, just use it for Christ. Use it, don't just sit and hoard it, because if you're sitting on something and hoarding it, guess what? It's going to end up going away anyways. And even, like, read the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon's talking about, like, look, I did all this work and all this great stuff and I have all these blessings, but who's it going to go to after me? I have no idea if he's going to be wiser, I don't know if my son's going to just blow all this stuff, and that's what happens, really. So it's kind of like, why even waste so much time thinking about all that stuff? Don't let that consume you, put your priorities where they need to be. Now we know, you know, the Bible teaches that, and I forget the exact way that it's said in Scripture, that the parents lay up for their children, right, not the children for their parents. The Apostle Paul says this, as well as in Proverbs, it's saying that, you know, it's a good thing it's a righteous thing for the father to lay up some things, try to give your children a better start, to give them something when you leave, to be able to leave an inheritance unto them. But leaving an inheritance to your children is not the same as just accumulating, amassing so much wealth possible, you know, I'm just going to build all these great storehouses and then I'm just going to not do anything and just coast and live off this stuff. We see David trying to accumulate a lot of stuff for Solomon, but it wasn't for Solomon, it's for the temple of the Lord, right, remember when he was just working real hard to, you know, all the things he's bringing into the Lord's house, all this stuff, he's working hard, he's putting all his money into, he's doing all this stuff, and trying to make the work succeed for his son, not to just give his son a bunch of wealth, but so that that work would succeed. The furtherance of, you know, building the temple. He knew it was a great work to do, so he said, I'm going to help my son get this job done through those things. It wasn't just to give him as much wealth as possible, it was to give him the resources to get the work of God done. So here's how God answers this man in this parable who just, tear everything down, let's build even greater storehouses so I could just pack in as much stuff that I'm blessed with as possible. Verse 20, but God said unto him, thou fool, he calls him a fool. The world's going to tell him he's wise, hey, that's great, yeah, I mean, sure, get the biggest bank account, get everything, you know, piled away, store up all that money, but God said, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee, then who shall those things be which thou hast provided? Where's it all going to go? You wasted all this time and all this effort, you know, building these great storehouses and you're dead. Where's it even going to go? You don't know. Verse 21, so is he that layeth up treasure for himself, but this is the key, and is not rich toward God. God has blessed people in the Bible. God blessed Jacob, right? God blessed Jacob. Jacob made some mistakes, but God still blessed him, right? And I'm talking just financially, fiscally, right? He had a lot of things. Now, Jacob worked really hard, but God also blessed him. God blessed Abraham. God blessed his substance. But you see, they were rich toward God. So the things themselves aren't sinful or wicked or wrong if a person has them or not. So we can't just judge someone based on, do they have abundance? We don't judge someone saying, oh, they must be really holy and righteous because they have a lot of things. But at the same time, we're not going to say, oh, well, they must be super wicked because they have a lot of things either. You can't say that, right? If God's blessed someone, fine. Now we know it's a lot more likely that people who have riches, the Bible says that it's easier for the camel to go through an eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter in the kingdom of God. We know that to be true because, in general, people who have a lot of substance, a lot of things, are lifted up with pride. And that riches will oftentimes lift people up and cause them to be covetous just because of those things. So we need to take heed, and we need to be aware of that covetous because covetous will destroy you. It's going to pierce you through with many sorrows, the Bible says. The love of money is the root of all evil, which while some covet it after. God beers them through with many sorrows. Now look at, turn if you would to Proverbs 23. I forgot to have you keep a place in 2 Chronicles 32. I'm going to keep reading for you in 2 Chronicles 32, but when I talked about building up the storehouses and everything, I wanted to show you Luke 12, because I think that's very fitting. And then I'm going to keep reading in 2 Chronicles 32, your turn to Proverbs 23. 2 Chronicles 32 verse 30, the Bible says, this same Hezekiah also stopped the upper water course of Gihon and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David, and Hezekiah prospered in all his works. Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him to try him that he might know all that was done, all that was in his heart. So God's, you know, the Bible's telling us here that God actually left him just to see what he would do. God's blessing Hezekiah and doing stuff, but God wants to see how is Hezekiah going to respond when these people show up. And when it says here that they sent to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, we don't even know exactly which wonder he's referring to. It could be the wonder of the sun going back 10 degrees. That's a pretty significant wonder. That would have affected everybody in the world for that to happen. I don't think that just was some local miracle that was like some illusion for the people there at the time. I think it's something that literally happened that everyone in the world would have known. What is going on? What a great wonder. But there's also the wonder of Hezekiah's health, just being saved, getting those years. And there's also the wonder of God defeating the enemy for them and all those men just being corpses in the morning. Those are all wonders that happened that they could have been inquiring about. But when they came, Hezekiah failed because he didn't exalt the name of the Lord and show his thanks and gratitude unto God for saving him in any of those wonders, but rather took the opportunity to exalt his own name and show him the abundance of things that he possessed instead of what God had done for him. In Proverbs 23, verse number 1, the Bible says, When thou sitest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat. Labor not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom. The Bible teaches us, don't be just laboring to be rich. We labor, yes, we need to labor. Men need to labor. You need to support yourself. You need to support your families. You need to support people, right? But you're not laboring to be rich. We should be working because we need to work, but we don't just work to, I want to be really wealthy. That desire to be really wealthy is misplaced as a Christian. Bible teaches us not to labor to be rich. You'll labor not to be rich. Verse 5, Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? So basically it's saying that the goods, the wealth, the abundance, it's empty, like it's not even there. Because it's there for such a short period, it doesn't last. It's not something that is going to be there. And I mean, we all could probably feel the same way in one regard. I don't know about you, but when my paycheck hits my bank account, it doesn't stay around very long. That abundance, it's like, ah, cool, I just got paid, and it's like, OK, let's start writing checks. And I'm like, OK, well, that's all gone, and it's a cycle, it just keeps happening. It's here today, literally gone tomorrow. That's how it works in my house. I don't know, maybe you're different, but when you think about it that way, why would you just really want to work so hard and dedicate your life to just amassing more and more of that wealth, which, I mean, that just comes and goes. He said, wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not, for riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away as an eagle toward heaven. That's true. I mean, they're just, it's gone. Even this past year, I don't know how much the government has given my family with all the COVID relief stuff, right, Brother Logan, I know you, you know what I'm talking about here, right? The more kids you have, especially younger kids, you've been getting this, you know, these paycheck stuff, but it's like, where is that money? I don't know where that money is. Do you know where that money is? I don't know where it is. It's gone. It's not sitting under my pillow at home, I know that much. It's gone. This stuff is gone. I'm not going to waste my time just chasing after the dollar, chasing after those things. It's going to escape you. And if you got your hands on it, it's not going to be for that long, and it's going to be empty anyways. It never fulfills. Because whatever you end up getting, wherever your marker is of saying, if I just got this much, then man, everything would be great. If you are so focused on making that much money, as soon as you hit that, you're going to just want more. You're going to realize it's not all it's cracked up to be at that level, I need to have more. Because apparently this isn't what I thought it was, apparently I need to have a little bit more to get to that comfort zone and that place where I thought I needed to be. It's actually a little bit higher. You're never going to get to that point. You never will. It's weird the way it works, but that's reality. And you don't have to learn that from experience if you just take heed to the word of God. Look, work hard. And if you have a great paying job, then praise God. Great. Right? Whether you do or you don't, work what you need to work to provide, but don't labor to be rich and be focused on all the money. Make as much money as you can while you're out working, but that's not the focus. That's not where your heart should be, is laboring to be rich. Don't labor to be rich. Flip over to chapter 30. I'm going to close on this, chapter 30, verse 7. Two things have I required of thee. Deny me them not before I die. Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. What great words of wisdom. He's saying, you know what, I'm not asking for much, God. Just please, you know, I've got these two things that I'm going to require of you. Please don't deny me these things before I die. One, he says, remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. I don't want to be poor, and I don't want to be rich. If I could just get by, right? I don't want to be poor to where I feel I might be tempted to steal, right, and break the commandments of God because I'm so hungry and so poor. God, please don't let me get in that state to where, you know, I'm doing everything I can to not break your commandments. But at the same time, Lord, don't let me get so full of wealth and riches that I forget the Lord. And you say, well, who could possibly, how could you possibly forget the Lord? I would never forget the Lord. Wouldn't you say that Hezekiah would probably say the same thing? Wouldn't you have said that Solomon probably would have said the same thing? Wouldn't you probably have said that David would have said the same thing? Wouldn't you probably have said that Saul would have said the same thing, all of them earlier in their lives when they were right with God, when they were serving the Lord, Solomon asking, Lord, I just want wisdom. Please help me. I need to know. It's a great responsibility. I need to know how to bring these people out and bring them in, and I just want to serve you, God. God, please give me the wisdom, and please help me have an understanding. This is a big job. I need to know how to deal with it. And God says, OK, I'll do that, and I'm going to give you all this other stuff on top of that. Solomon doesn't do all these riches. What happens at the end of his life? He's building up altars to false prophets. He gets all these outlandish women he's marrying and making his concubines, and his heart is turned from serving the Lord. Hezekiah, man, we're going to have the best Passover there's ever been in the history of Passovers. We're going to serve God with all of our hearts. We are going to rededicate ourselves. We're going to serve God like no other. And he goes, and he does these great things, and then what happens? He gets his great healings. There's this great miracle. I mean, he witnesses the sun going back to him, all this stuff. Hey, look at all my stuff, and just getting wrapped up in all the abundance of wealth. He never would have thought that that was going to happen. Take heed. Take heed, because these people who have done these great, mighty acts for God were able to fall into this trap of covetousness. This trap of having such great abundance of wealth and power, and being able to, you know, they succumb to that. Don't think that you're just so much greater and mightier than they were. You have flesh and blood, too, and so do I. All of us do. We all need to be able to take heed. Learn from the pattern of the people who have received such abundance. Learn from the wisdom that we're seeing in the book of Proverbs. Learn from these examples and say, I am not going to go after this. And pray to God that God will help you to realize and catch you and snap you out of it if you ever do start becoming focused on the things of this world and covetousness and just wanting to have more stuff. Don't ever forget that, because it will be your downfall. I said I was going to close on that verse, but I'm not going to because I'm going to close on 1 Timothy chapter 6. These verses just keep on rattling in my brain, and I'm going, you know what, I'm just going to turn there because I don't want to misquote it. And there's enough here that it's everything, it encapsulates everything that I'm trying to express. Let's look to the word of God, 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse number 6 we're going to start reading. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be there with content. Let's be satisfied with the food and clothing that we have, and not just, I need to have this and this and this, and I need to have this in my home and this car and this. Be content with your food and your clothing. Verse 9, but they that will be rich. Will means you want, it's in your heart, it's a desire. They will be rich. It doesn't mean they're going to be, it means they want to be. Fall. It doesn't say they might fall, it says fall into temptation and a snare, a snare's a trap. You just have this overwhelming desire to just be rich, be prepared to get stuck in a trap and to fall into temptation and a snare, and into many, into many foolish and hurtful lusts. That desire to be rich isn't going to end with just being about money. It won't. It's going to lead into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some covet it after, they have erred from the faith. When you end up coveting after money, coveting after riches, coveting after the wealth, wanting to be rich, you've erred from the faith. You're in error, you're wrong. You become foolish and pierce themselves through with many sorrows. The exact opposite of what you think you're going to get with all of those riches. Anyone who desires to be rich is seeking joy and happiness and peace and comfort and safety, all of those things from being rich. That's what people want, but that's exactly what you're not going to get. You will not get it if you're covetous and seeking after that. How about you try walking in the spirit where the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, long suffering. Look, those are the things that are going to come from walking in the spirit. It has nothing to do with money. It has nothing to do with riches. Those are the things people seek with money. You're not going to get it. It's just empty. It's going to be gone. Trust in the word of God. Don't fall into the trap. You'll be pierced through with many sorrows. Your life is going to be miserable. Miserable for many reasons. Miserable because it's never going to achieve what you want. Miserable because you're not going to end up getting, you know, every time you think you need to get this much, you're going to need more. It's maddening. Don't go after it. Serve God in simplicity of heart and, you know, if He blesses you, praise God. Like the Apostle Paul said, I know both how to be a base and I know how to abound. Right? God brings you low, God blesses you, lifts you up. Great. Praise the Lord. Just like Job had the right attitude as well. The Lord is given, the Lord is taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Amen. Job was blessed majorly, Job was brought down, Job was blessed again. Things come and go. Don't let these things, though, be the focus of your heart and end up destroying you. Hezekiah's downfall is many other people's downfall. Take heed. Spires have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. Thank you so much for giving us this wisdom. Please help us to take heed and to realize the importance of this, dear Lord. And God, I pray that hopefully everybody has got the right heart right now, dear Lord, in this area especially. But Lord, if any of us here, if any of us start to stray away and start to allow to creep into our hearts this wicked desire to just be covetous and greedy after money and after the physical wealth and gain of this world, dear Lord, I pray that you would please help our eyes to just be opened up to that fact that we wouldn't fall into those traps and we'd be able to catch ourself and be able to take heed early on, dear Lord, so that we wouldn't just slip and fall. Lord, help those things to become obvious to us so that we would be able to make the changes before having to deal with being pierced through with many sorrows. Lord, we love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.