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Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located

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in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship

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Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism,

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discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church

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and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bickford and I will be your

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host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing

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to you and bring you closer to God.

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Hello and welcome back to the Potter's House podcast. My name is David Bickford and I'm

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the pastor here in Salmon Arm. And today I put together a message called The Last Kings

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of Judah, which we are going to look at, The Lone Southern Kingdom. So if you are going

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to follow along in your text this morning, it's 2 Kings 18, 1-6 that we will be using

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as the jumping off point for our message this morning.

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When I was putting this message together, I came across an illustration. It's a World

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War II illustration. You know, being a, you know, a member of the United States, Marines

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in the States, I tend to gravitate back to a lot of this war stuff. But in World War

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II, when it was at its height, the forces were engaged in what was known as the Battle

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of the Bulge or the Christmas War of 1944. The fighting was so fierce and in the bitter

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and in the cold, the Allied forces bombed and established a control of a strategic area.

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The commanding officer turned to several of his men and said, sweep across the field and

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kill all German soldiers still entrenched in the snow. I want no prisoners, absolutely

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none. One of the American soldiers selected gives his account of what happens next. As

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I walked, I immediately shot and killed two wounded and suffering soldiers. He continues,

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then suddenly I approached a tall young, young guy with a broad Teutonic forehead. He was

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leaning against a tree. He wasn't wounded, simply exhausted. He had no food, no water,

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no comrades in sight, no ammunition. Fear, fatigue, defeat and loneliness overwhelmed

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him. He spoke English with a beautiful accent. And when I noticed a little black Bible in

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his shirt pocket, he reminisces, we started to talk about Jesus and salvation. Wouldn't

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you know it? The lanky German soldier turned out to be a born again Christian who deeply

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loved the Lord. I gave him water from my canteen. I even gave him a, you know, crackers. Then

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we prayed and read God's word together and we wept together too. His voice began to

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treble as tears splashed down his cheeks. His face began to reflect anguish. It seems

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like only yesterday we stood a foot or so apart as he read a Psalm from his German Bible.

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Then I read Romans 12 from my King James translation. He showed me a black and white picture of

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his wife and daughter. The soldier took a deep breath. You see, in those days I was

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a young man in my early twenties and I had just graduated from a Christian college in

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Illinois and hadn't had time to sort out my thoughts on the war. Maybe that's why

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I did what I did. I bid my German brother farewell, took several steps away, then returned

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to the soldier. Romans 13, the thou shall not kill command, the promise of eternal life,

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the Prince of peace, the Sunday school distinction between killing and murder and the irrationality

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of war all swirled in my mind. When the German soldier saw me returning, he bowed his head

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and closed his eyes in a classic prayer posture. Then it happened. I said three crisp sentences

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that I still repeat once or twice a week when I have nightmares about the war. You're a

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Christian, I am too. See you later. In less than a second, I transformed that defenseless

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Christian soldier into a corpse. The story comes from John Johnson and it was part of

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a lengthier story of You Can't Stand Strong in the Face of Fear. It was published in 1990.

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This is a pretty horrific story and this is going to be used as kind of the cornerstone

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of this message because we see in The Last Kings of Judah this way of rationalizing what

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they've done in order to assuage their guilt or their conscience for denying their God

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and denying their covenant that they have with their God. So let's look at our text

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in 2 Kings 18, 1-6. It says, In the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah, king of Israel,

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Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. He was 25 years old when he began

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to reign and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abbey and the daughter

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of Zechariah and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that

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David his father had done. He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut

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down the Asherah and he broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made for

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until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it. And it was called Nehushtan.

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He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel so that there was none like him among all the

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kings of Judah after him nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord.

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He did not depart from following him but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses.

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So as we jump off in our scripture this morning in our text, we see that one of the best kings

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of Judah or as this message says, you know, he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart

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from following him but kept the commandments of the Lord or that the Lord commanded Moses.

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So one of the few good kings as we see is our starting off point. And it's important

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that we start off here because it's important that we we make sure that we highlight where

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Israel or where Judah was when Hezekiah took the throne and what ends up happening shortly

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after he he passes. So our lives can be very difficult at times and not all of us go through

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war like was depicted in this illustration. Mostly we go through the typical ups and downs

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that are common to all of us. But I find it interesting how often the very normal occurrences

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are the ones that can throw us off balance the most. These simple things can cause us

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to falter in our faith or in our confidence. It seems one of the most common things in

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all of life is also one of the most common things to cause bitterness and breaking down

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of our faith. The death of a loved one, sickness, or even just a flat tire could cause many

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to stumble. In the soldier's story we see that he had to make a hard choice between

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his faith and his duty to his earthly commander. It doesn't matter that it goes against what

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he believed or what was right. He was given a choice to obey his early earthly master

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or his heavenly Lord. The choice that he made haunted him for the rest of his life. We too

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make decisions in our life that can haunt us, decisions that can derail us from our

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path and the directions of those who we care for most. The last kings of Judah had to

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make critically important decisions for the direction of the kingdom and for the last

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remnant of God's people on earth. The northern kingdom had already been destroyed and their

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people were scattered and are lost to all time. They were lost to iniquity that they

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had let themselves become part of and they are considered the lost tribes today, the

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ten lost tribes of Israel. Taken away in idolatry by Jeroboam from the very beginning, that's

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what we see from the history of the northern kingdom. And when we look at the southern

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kingdom of Judah, this is the story that we're going to continue on with today. But we have

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to wonder, we have to wonder what could have happened had Jeroboam not so readily taken

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the northern tribes into idolatry from the very beginning of his rule. In 1 Kings 11

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31-33 it says, And he said to Jeroboam, Take for yourself ten pieces. For thus says the

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Lord the God of Israel, Behold, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon

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and will give you ten tribes. But he shall have one tribe for the sake of my servant

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David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen out of all the tribes of

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Israel. Because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians

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and Chamash the god of Moab and Milcham the god of the Ammonites, and they have not walked

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in my ways doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my rules as David

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his father did. Even though God gave the northern tribe, gave northern kingdom, what he did,

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Jeroboam, what he did from the start was evil. He set up golden calves in idol worship as

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his first act as king. In 1 Kings 12 28-31 it says, So the king took counsel and made

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two calves of gold. And he said to the people, You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough,

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behold your gods, O Israel, who have brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And he set

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one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan. Then this thing became a sin for the people

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and went as far as Dan to be before it. He also made temples on high places and appointed

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priests from among all the people who were not of the Levites. So it was by the acts

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of King Jeroboam that the northern kingdom was put on the path to destruction. The northern

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kingdom has the distinction of never having a good king. And the people of the north suffered

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greatly because of their wicked kings. The southern kingdom of Judah had many bad or

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evil kings, but they had a few kings that were told did right in the eyes of the Lord.

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So we're going to look at the last kings of Judah, a couple of them held to the faith.

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And because of that, people, the people of Judah were able to continue on even through

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their Babylonian exile and eventually be restored back to the lands of Israel. So this brings

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me my first point, which is removing the high places. Hezekiah began reigning as his father

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Ahaz is vice-regent in 729 BC, and he ruled as such for 14 years. In 715 BC, he begins

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his sole rule over Judah, which lasted until 697 BC, 18 years. He then reigned with his

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son Manasseh, who served as his vice-regent for 11 more years from 697 to 686. His 29-year

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reign was from 715 to 686 BC. So I find this history interesting because it highlights

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that the kings of Judah during their period were brought up and trained by their fathers.

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They ruled first as regents and then as kings and then with their sons as regent rulers.

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It adds a little complexity to the story because the reigns of these kings were so very different

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from generation to generation. The author of Kings recorded that only three other kings

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did right as David had done. Asa in 1 Kings 1511, Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 17.3, and

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Josiah 2 Kings 22.1-2. These were the other three of Judah's four reforming kings. The

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only other kings besides Hezekiah that removed the high places was Jehoshaphat. So these

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high places must have been rebuilt after Hezekiah removed them. Regarding his faith, Hezekiah

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was the greatest of the Judaic kings. He did not depart from serving God later in life

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as a lot of the other kings did and consequently God's blessing rested on him. His rebellion

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against Sennacherib precipitated Assyria's invasion into Judah and this was a reversal

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of his father Ahaz's policy of aligning with Assyria. God gave him consistent victory over

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the Philistines and in 2 Kings 18, 9-12 it serves as a double purpose showing that they

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relate the Assyrian defeat of Samaria to Hezekiah's reign and they explain again the spiritual

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reason for the defeat in 2 Kings 18, 12. Hezekiah's fourth year of king was in 725 BC, the fourth

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year of his co-regency with Ahaz. In 2 Kings 18, 12 it says, Because they did not obey

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the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed with his covenant, even all that Moses the

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servant of the Lord commanded, they neither listened nor obeyed. Hezekiah's example was

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not received by the Israelites of the northern kingdom and they were later destroyed. Later

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on in his rule he was tested by the Assyrian leader Sennacherib. At first Hezekiah tried

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to appease Assyria but eventually Hezekiah turned to the Lord, turning to Yahweh in prayer

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and to his prophet for an answer. He sensed his position under God's authority and humbled

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himself and sought God's help and God rewarded Hezekiah's attitude and assured him success

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because the Assyrians challenged the reputation of God. So later in Hezekiah's life he felt

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ill but he again humbled himself and the Lord healed him. Hezekiah was not without fault

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entirely. He succumbed to a similar boasting that Solomon did with the queen of Sheba.

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Hezekiah let Babylonian visitors into the kingdom and showed them all the wealth and

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grandeur of Judah. This led to the prophecy of the Babylonian exile that would come later.

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Perhaps Hezekiah's only serious flaw was an inability to prepare Manasseh, his successor,

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to be like himself. On the other hand, how can anyone guarantee the quality of their

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children's life choices? This is one of the pains of parenting, is that you try to pour

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into your children wisdom to do better than yourself, to live more for God than you have

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in your life and to try to show them the benefit of living for God or for living a godly life.

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But ultimately there is choice that falls on our children. And this brings me to my

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next point which is witchcraft, idolatry, and the human sacrifice. Pretty scary ideas.

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We're going to leave Hezekiah behind and we're going to come into the next stage of this

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story. So between the death of Hezekiah and the final fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians,

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there lay precisely one century, 100 years. Seldom has a nation experienced so many dramatically

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sudden reversals of fortune in such a short time. Through the first half of the period,

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a vassal of Assyria, Judah then knew in rapid succession periods of independence and subjugation,

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first to Egypt and to Babylon before finally destroying herself in feudal rebellion against

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the latter. So quickly did these phases follow one after another that it was possible for

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one man, as Jeremiah did, to have witnessed them all.

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Manasseh began reigning as a vice regent with his father Hezekiah when he was 12 years old

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in 697 BC and this arrangement continued for those 11 years that we discussed. For a total

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of 55 years Manasseh was king of Judah. He reigned longer than any Hebrew king and he

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was Judah's worst king spiritually. And 2 Kings 21 verses 1 through 9 it reads,

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Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem.

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His mother's name was Hefzeba and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord according

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to the despicable practices of the nations of whom the Lord drove out before the people

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of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed and

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he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah as Ahab king of Israel had done and worshiped

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all the hosts of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord of

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which the Lord had said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars for all

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the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he burned his son as

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an offering and he used fortune telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers.

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He did much evil in the sight of the Lord provoking him to anger and the carved image

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of Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the Lord said to David and

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to Solomon his son in this house and in Jerusalem which I have chosen out of all the tribes

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of Israel I will put my name forever. I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore

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out of the land that I gave to their fathers if only they will be careful to do according

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to all that I have commanded them and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded

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them. But they did not listen and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations

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had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel. Manasseh immediately left

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the faith becoming an apostate. He is recorded as being as depraved as King Ahab from the

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northern kingdom. His murders include those of his own children sacrificed to Baal and

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Molech. It's even believed that he murdered the prophet Isaiah. The method of Isaiah's

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death was that he was sawn in half and they believe he was sawn in half by Manasseh or

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at least by his command. It's agreed upon by both Babylonian the Babylonian Talmud and

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the Jerusalem Talmud and is probably alluded to by the writer of the epistle to Hebrews

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in 1137. How horribly dramatic is the turn of Judah that was made in this one generation.

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The reforms of Hezekiah were overturned just as fast as they were established and this

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should be a call to all of us to pray over our children and over our grandchildren. A

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covering of prayer that the faith that we hold to so dearly is going to be picked up

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by our children and our children's children and our children's children's children all

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the way down the line. The only highlight to the reign of Manasseh was that in the end

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it seems he did repent but how much damage was done. In 2 Chronicles 33 10-13 it says

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the Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people but they paid no attention. Therefore the

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Lord brought upon them the commanders of the armies of the king of Assyria who captured

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Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains and bronze and brought him to Babylon. And

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when he was in distress he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly

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before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him and God was moved by his entreaty and

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he heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom and then Manasseh

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knew that the Lord was God. So we have to be thankful that even as evil as Manasseh

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was there was still some room for grace. Many like to think of the Old Testament as a time

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when God was angry. The life and example of Manasseh shows us the great and powerful grace

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that God has for all of us. How amazing it is that such an evil wicked man would still

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be able to pray to God and receive repentance. The fact that you know his that he was able

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to tap into the presence of God once again when he humbled himself is such an amazing

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thing. It's such an amazing thing for us to remember. They especially as Christians as

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we have the blood of Christ to thank for our salvation and to remember that even the most

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wicked people when they come to the reality of their own wickedness and repent and turn

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from it can receive grace in Jesus name. This brings me to my final point which is Josiah

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the reformer the beginning of the end. The earlier example of Manasseh still resonates

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with his son. Amon reigned for two years from 642 to 640 rather than continuing to follow

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the Lord which his father's repentance encouraged Amon reverted to the politics of Manasseh's

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earlier reign and rebelled against God completely. This provoked some of his officials to assassinate

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him which we read about in 2 Kings 21-23 and again we see that rebellion against God often

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leads to one's premature personal destruction. To their credit the leaders of Judah executed

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the king's assassins and so prevented anarchy. Since Josiah was eight years old when his

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father died at age 22 he must have been born when Amon was only 14 which was very common

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in ancient near east cultures. Josiah began to seek God when he was 16 years old and he

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began initiating religious reforms when he was 20 years old. His reforms were more extensive

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than those of any of his predecessors. One of them involved the repair of Solomon's

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temple and he began that project when he was 26 years old. But the end of the line is Joe

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has was the middle of Josiah's three sons all of whom ruled Judah after Josiah. Jehoah

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as was the people's choice but he reigned for only three months in 609 BC when Pharaoh

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Necho defeated Josiah and Megiddo Judah fell under the Egyptian control. Necho summoned

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Josiah's successor Jehoah to meet him at Ribla. This town stood about 65 miles north

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of Damascus in central Aramaea and the meeting took place before the battle of Karachemesh

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and Necho found Jehoah as obstinate as his father had been so he imprisoned him and sent

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him back to Egypt where he died later. Necho also imposed a heavy tax on Judah and installed

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Jehoah as his older brother Eliakim on Judah's throne as his puppet. The naming of a person

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shows superiority over that person so Necho was declaring his sovereignty over Judah's

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king by renaming him Jehoahakim. In 605 BC Prince Nebuchadnezzar led the Babylonian army

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of his father Nabo-Polasar against the allied forces of Assyria and Egypt and defeated them

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at Karachemesh. This victory as previously explained gave Babylon supremacy in the ancient

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Near East. Babylon's victory over Egypt's vassals including Judah came under Babylonian

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control. Shortly after that event in the same year Nabo-Polasar died and Nebuchadnezzar

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succeeded him and Nebuchadnezzar then moved south and invaded Judah in 605 BC. He took

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some captives during this period. They included Daniel during this first group. This was the

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first of three deportations that we know about that the Babylonians took from Judah. Jehoahakim

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submitted to Nebuchadnezzar for three years but then he rebelled. He appealed to Egypt

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for help unsuccessfully. Foreign raiders who sought to take advantage of her weakened condition

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besieged Judah. The Babylonians then took Jehoahakim to Babylon. Later they allowed

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him to return to Jerusalem where he died. Jehoahakim did little to postpone God's judgment

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on Judah for her previous sins. The prophet Jeremiah despised him for his wickedness which

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you can read about in Jeremiah 22, 18, 19 and Jeremiah 26, 20, 23 and Jeremiah 36 as

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well. Jehoahakim's son Jehoachin whose other name was Jeconiah or Koniah succeeded him

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on the throne but only reigned for three months. When Nebuchadnezzar's troops were besieging

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Jerusalem the Babylonian king personally visited Judah's capital and Jehoahachin surrendered

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to him. In 2 Kings 25, 27-30 we read, And in the 37th year of the exiled Jehoahachin

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king of Judah, in the 12th month, on the 27th day of the month, evil Merodach king of Babylon

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in the year that he began to reign graciously freed Jehoahachin king of Judah from prison.

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And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were

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with him in Babylon. So Jehoahachin put off his prison garments and every day of his life

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he dined regularly at the king's table and for his allowance a regular allowance was

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given to him by the king according to his daily needs as long as he lived. So in the

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end as we come to a close we know that Judah fell and was carried off into exile into Babylon.

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When we look back at our illustration we see that there is a cost to disobedience. The

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soldier who obeyed an unrighteous order was haunted by his choice to put man above God.

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The reforms of Hezekiah were tremendous especially because of how it was an about face from what

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his father had done before him. The tragedy was that his son reversed all of his reforms

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and it wasn't until the end of his life that he saw the air of his ways. By the time Manasseh

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turned back to the Lord it was too late for him to save his son. His son had been corrupted

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and paid a price for it. Thankfully his grandson was able to look back at his repentance and

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the example of his great grandfather in Josiah ended up being the last good king of Judah.

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At the end of the story though we see God provided us with a small glimpse of his future

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plan. We see Jehoiachin survive the line as the line of King David securing it for the

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future. Also we can eventually have the reality of our Messiah Jesus Christ arising out of

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the ashes of this kingly lineage. We have the best of kings the Lord of lords a perfect

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and spotless lamb and that changes the idea of what a king should be and how we should

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rule. I've talked about this many times in the past but we serve a God, we serve a king

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and King Jesus but his kingdom is an upside down kingdom. It's a kingdom of service. It's

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not a kingdom of power, of authoritarianism. Jesus came as a human and he came to serve.

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He gives us that example and so we have to decide for ourselves are we going to follow

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the example of Christ? Are we going to follow example of our heavenly father? Or are we

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going to follow the fallen examples of politicians and kings earthly kings that want to rule

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over their fellow man who are willing to sacrifice and even kill their fellow man for power?

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Or are you going to be willing to lay your life down like our Lord Jesus did? So with

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that if I could have everyone bowed, every eye closed wherever you are just for a quick

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moment. I hope this message has resonated with you and I hope that you recognize that

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that there is never a time that you can't turn back to Jesus Christ or turn to him if

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you haven't in the past. The story of Manasseh is so powerful in the sense that he was the

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most wicked of all kings of Judah but he was able to come to his senses and turn back to

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God. So maybe this message has resonated with you for that reason or maybe you've recognized

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that you were once serving God but you've left your first love of Jesus Christ and you've

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gone into the world and you're doing something that you aren't very proud of but you want

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to get your heart right. Well I want to give this invitation, this opportunity for you

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to get your heart right right now and if that's you, if you've never given your life to Jesus

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Christ or you've walked away and you want to come back, I want you to signify that with

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a lifted hand wherever you are. I can't see it but God can see your hand and he can see

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your heart. So if you rose your hand and you meant that, I want you to just repeat after

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me, Dear Lord God, I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you sent your son Jesus Christ

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who died for me. I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior and I repent of my sins. In Jesus

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name I pray, Amen. I just want to commend you on taking that step because no matter

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how you what happens in our lives, there's an opportunity that we're presented with to

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turn back to Jesus Christ, to look towards Jesus Christ, to serve our Lord and Savior,

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to be like one of the good kings of Judah, to be an example for our children, for even

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our parents, for our grandchildren and for our friends and our loved ones besides that.

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But we have to be willing to humble ourselves and serve. So with that I want to thank you

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for listening to this message today and I want to ask that if this message did impact

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you, that you share it, that you would like, save and subscribe to this podcast. Help us

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get this message out there but please share this podcast so that we can get this out to

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more people. And I want to thank you again for listening and I can't wait for you to

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come back next time. God bless.