Good good All right, take your bibles turn with
me to the book of second Chronicles chapter 29
Wow, it's good to be in the house of the Lord
and it truly is I don't believe church grows
old I love the fellowship the singing And I am
just thankful that we have a church that sees
the importance of gathering together in the name
of the Lord and rejoicing that I need that. I
believe we need that. And I believe it honors
the Lord in a great way. This message tonight,
I've been preparing for a while. It's a message
about Hezekiah. And you're gonna see in a moment
as we delve into this that the nation of Judah.
had a new beginning, you might say, a new chance.
There's a new king coming to the throne named
Hezekiah, and you know, a new beginning, a new
beginning. And you think about it, a start of
something, and it's an opportunity, it's a chance.
And I'm gonna give a quick illustration before
we get started. And I'm gonna give not a spiritual
illustration, but an illustration of my life.
I was, you know, younger, I was 2000, probably
six or seven. And I was driving through Portsmouth
and Victory Crossing. There used to be a thrift
store there called Village Thrift. And close
to Village Thrift, there was a laundromat. And
I owned a couple of laundromats already. And
I looked over that laundromat, and that laundromat
was closed down. And I'd looked in the windows
and there were three Wasco mat washers right
there, practically brand new. And for me, for
you, it wouldn't mean anything but Wasco mat
washers right there. They're the cream of the
crop. And I said, wow, what in the world? This
thing has died. This laundromat's gone. It's
like no longer in existence. I wonder who owns
this. I wonder if I could buy it. And I did some
research. I found a phone number, found the lady
who owned it. And she just couldn't make the
business work. And I said, well, will you sell
this? And we came to an agreement. I bought that
laundromat for $20 ,000. And man, I was excited.
Now, you may not have been excited, but I was
so excited. I went in there. I opened up all
the quarter little things open there. I found
like 50 cents. That was exciting for me. I began
to go in there and I painted the whole place.
I put a logo on the front there of the thing,
the coin wash right there. And I got things going.
And I remember the first day, it's open for the
first day. I remember walking through there and
I think I got $7 .50 for the day. Now, for you,
not exciting. But me, it was a new beginning.
I saw potential. I saw hope. And I remember I
put out signs, the coin wash. I put them out
on the streets. I began to beg people to come
to this laundromat. I began to ask people to
come to this laundromat. And they started slowly
coming in. Now, my wife and I, we went over there
one time, and there was a terrible, terrible
stench throughout the laundromat. I mean, it
smelled extremely bad. And I went in there. And
I said, there's gotta be something that died
in here. I'd put out some poison, rat poison
a little bit. So you start looking around, and
behind the laundromats, there's these little
things, and there's a group of Spanish -speaking
people. Where's brother Stephen Stapleton of
Spanish -speaking people? Miss Dennis, you remember
this? You're with me. And I'm picking up the
back of these. I crawl on the top of these laundromats.
I pick them up. and there's nothing, and I kept
going, and I remember right beside the Wasco
mats, behind the washing machines, I all of a
sudden peeked in there, and I about had a heart
attack. There was a rat this big, and he was
smiling at me, and I jumped and fell off of there.
And Brother Steve, those Spanish people, they
began to laugh at me. And then one of the guys
comes over. He says, you know, in Spanish, what
he meant is, can I help you? And my wife then
gave me a look like, you're not going to take
care of this. And I said, no, I'm going to let
this guy take care of it. He pulled out this
dead rat right there. And we got rid of the stench.
And that laundromat became useful, successful.
It became a vibrant laundromat. And it was a
joy. to see something go from desolate, really
destroyed, and all of a sudden see it come to
life and become a profitable business. For me,
it was exciting. What's even more exciting...
is spiritually seeing something that is dead
come back to life. God takes something that has
really gone by the wayside, maybe with sin, and
we're gonna see a story of sin tonight, but you
have a new beginning, a new chance. And really,
as we go through this, what are you gonna do
with your new beginning? What are you gonna do
with your chance to make something of this? And
a lot of times people quit, but listen, we have
a great God. that is cheering us on. We're running
a race and God desires families, homes, individuals,
churches to do something with their lives. So
let's stand for the reading of God's word. We're
gonna start in verse number one. We're gonna
just start by reading verses one and two of chapter
29. Second Chronicles chapter 29, verse number
one, ready? Hezekiah began to reign when he was
five and 20 years old. and he reigned nine and
20 years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name
was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. And he
did that which was right in the sight of the
Lord according to all that David, his father,
had said. Wow, and he did that. You gotta see
that. Read that with me. And he did that which
was right in the sight of the Lord. Just read
that statement again. And he did that which was
right in the sight of the Lord. Now that's the
story. He had a chance and we're gonna look a
little bit more into it. Ahaz, Wicked King, second
chance he was given went farther into sin. But
all of a sudden Hezekiah, his son, in a difficult
situation when sin abounded, he was given an
opportunity, he did right. And he had that new
beginning and he used it for the glory of God.
Before we go any further, let's pray. Dear Father
in heaven, it's exciting. It's exciting for me
personally. because I've been given many chances,
new beginnings in my life. And Lord, I can look
back at times that I failed you, but I can look
back at times when I did right. And I pray that
you help us all to look at the beginnings, the
new beginnings that we have, the opportunities
we have before us. And do right, do right. And
I pray that you help us to maybe even realize
sometimes when we go into difficult situations,
Lord, unfair situations, Lord, that we still
have a chance. And really with you on our side,
God, we're in the majority. We love you, we need
you, and we pray that you bless in a great way.
In Jesus' name, amen. Oh, if you go back to chapter
number 28, this. New beginning sermon actually
starts in chapter number 28 with a difficult,
difficult situation. And look with me at verse
number 22. We're gonna learn about King Ahaz.
Who, King who? Ahaz, King Ahaz. In verse 22,
and in the time of his distress, King Ahaz, he
did trespass yet more against the Lord. And look
at that, look at that phrase. This is that King
Ahaz, say that with me. This is that King Ahaz.
Now really, the story here is realizing that
there are people in life who waste their life.
There are people who spend their lives going
against the great God that we have. There are
Christians who waste their salvation and live
a life of sin and wickedness. They shouldn't
do that, but it happens. There's King Ahazes
who waste their opportunity. This is that King
Ahaz. Look at verse number 23. For he sacrificed
under the gods of Damascus. What is that? That's
sin. What is that? That's wickedness. We would
agree with that, say amen. And verse 24, and
Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house
of God, took something that's sacred, something
that is meant to be used for the honor and glory
of God, and says, and cut in pieces the vessels
of the house of God. What do you do? And shut
up the doors of the house of the Lord. Well,
you look at that, if this was 2024 or 2026 and
King Ahaz was alive right now, he would try to
close the doors of the churches. And that's not
right, amen. What he did is he closed the doors
of the house of the Lord, and he did something
that was wicked and vile. Look at verse 25, the
way it's worded. It says, in every several city
of Judah, he made high places to burn incense
unto other gods and provoked to anger the Lord
God. of his fathers. Now I wanna park there for
a moment. King Ahaz in his life, he provoked,
he provoked. What does the word provoke mean?
It means to stir up anger by repeated disobedience.
It means that you're stubborn. It means that
you're rebellious. It means that you're just,
you're poking the bear, poking the bear. You
know provoking, right? I remember my son Joseph
is somewhere around here. And Joseph, he's probably
hiding out in the hallway. No, there you are,
Joseph. You were hiding out early in the service
this morning. I started calling you out, and
you started coming in. I was thankful for that.
But my son Joseph, we were going through a, it
was a place that had fish tanks, and I can't
exactly remember where it was, but it had these
big fish. I mean, these big fish, and these tanks
were about this high off the ground. and you
could stick your finger in there if you wanted
to. And I said, Joseph, why don't you just stick
your finger in there and pretend it's a little,
you know, wormy right there. You know, and sort
of stick your finger in there, provoke that fish
a little bit, see what happens. And he's like,
he's a good son, he obeyed his daddy. But he
stuck his little finger in there and that fish
with jaws like this came up and these gnarly
teeth right there went rump on his finger. and
he yanked out his finger and the fish came half
the way out, and he's bleeding all over the place.
You shouldn't have done that. You're provoking
that fish. Okay? Don't provoke a fish. But in
serious, now don't provoke God. Don't poke at
God. You know, my son Joshua and Daniel, you're
in Yellowstone National Park this last year.
There's Joshua right there, and Daniel, and we
went into the northern part of Yellowstone, and
there's signs, don't mess with a buffalo. How
many of you'd agree, don't mess with a buffalo?
I mean, it's not wise to mess with a buffalo.
And you may mess with a buffalo and get away
with it, but you provoke them enough, you're
gonna be in big trouble. So we're there and we
went to this place where there was a petrified
tree. Mandy and me are up there and Joshua Daniel
says, can we go look at that buffalo down there?
We said, sure, go look at the buffalo. But we
got up to the petrified tree. Mandy and I are
looking out over the hill and they get closer
and they get closer and they get closer. And
I'm like, no, no. Now, you got away with it maybe.
Maybe you got away with it. You did get away
with it. He didn't attack you. You guys ran up
on that hill, but it was close. It was close.
You almost died right there. But listen, to provoke,
to poke at God, to be filled with rebellion and
being stubborn against God and repeatedly disobeying
God, closing the house of God, the doors of the
house of God, and you all of a sudden, this is
that King Nehaz. It was terrible for the nation.
The nation plunged into sin. Sin became the basic
law of the land. The house of God is closed down.
Righteousness was pushed down and sin was exalted
and King Ahaz died in his rebellion. He died
in his wickedness. He died leading that nation
to a slippery slope into sin. So that's when
we get to the new beginning. In chapter number
29, we get there to chapter number 29, we get
to a new beginning. and praise God for a new
beginning. He's 25 years old when he began to
reign, verse number one. He began to reign when
he was five and 20 years old. He was 25 years
old when he began to reign. Now I want to park
here for a moment. Just imagine your dad being
King A .S. Imagine being born into a sinful family.
Imagine being born in a family that didn't go
to church on Sundays or didn't respect God. In
your living room, you watched filthy things and
you had spent your life polluting your heart,
your mind with sin, with the gods of Damascus,
with idols in high places. That's your life.
That's what you grew up with. And that's a terrible
situation. By the way, part of the message, and
this isn't for everybody, but somebody who grew
up in sin and grew up in wickedness and grew
up with a vile family that didn't go to church,
there's hope for you. There's hope for you. Boy,
you're not shackled with the sin of your father's
past or your family's past right there. You have
a great God that loves you, that cares for you,
that offers you hope in the precious blood of
Jesus Christ and gives you a reason to live.
And it's important for you to not make excuses
and say, well, that's just the way my family's
been and that's just the way I'm gonna be. No,
that's a lie of the devil. Boy, you have a new
beginning. There's hope for you. And for old
Hezekiah right there, he's five and 25 years
old, and he began to reign. And the Bible says
he did that, which was right in the sight of
the Lord. Now, I'm not going to say everything
was easy. It's not. Brother John Reynolds was
telling me about a church, a church in Indiana.
And the pastor previous there had messed up.
And it was a very large church, a church that
was running over 500 people. This is last year.
So he went up there to be the interim pastor.
And the interim pastor, he got there to a church
that was angry, a church that was upset, a church
that was hurt, and it was a church that was divided
into different factions, you might say. And I
said, well, what did you do, Pastor Reynolds?
He said, well, I told them. I said, we need to
stop as a church fighting and we need to as a
church look to the great God that we have. In
a long story short, the Lord used Pastor Reynolds
to gear this or lead the church back to the great
God they had. They had a new beginning. and they
got a new pastor, and just a month ago they had
record attendance at their church with people
saved and people baptized, and I said, praise
God, they did not need to stay in the past of
what happened. Boy, they can move on to the future
with a new beginning, which leads to this. Look
at verse number three. Look at verse number three.
He, in the 30th year of his reign, you gotta
see this, not in the 30th, in the first year
of his reign, in the, The first month, the first
year, the first month. Now, this is important
for you to understand. He didn't wait. He didn't
wait. Boy, you got busy in the first year, in
the first month. Well, I'm gonna sow my wild
oats and when I get to be 30, I'm gonna serve
the Lord. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. In the
first year, in the first month, get busy now
for the Lord. Says he this he said he opened
the doors of the house the Lord. He opened the
doors Remember in the last chapter the doors
are closed He became king and he says no No,
this is not right. It's not right In the first
year, the first month, we're gonna make a change
here. We're gonna get on the revival road. We're
gonna serve the Lord. We're gonna open the doors
to the church. I don't care what people think.
I don't care what we've done in the past. We're
gonna get right with the Lord, not later, but
right now. It's important. This is a very important
truth because often you and I were sensitive
to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit begins
to work in our heart. We go to church, we read
the Bible, we hear a message and God begins to
prick your heart. He begins to tell you, now
is what I want you to do. Here's what I want
you to do. And all of a sudden, you know what?
It's not a mystery. It's not hidden. It's right
there. God is telling you to do something, make
a decision for Him. And all of a sudden, if you're
not careful, you'll say, well, I'll do that later.
I'll do that later. No, now. Get busy now. Be
sensitive to the Holy Spirit now. Get busy serving
the Lord now. Young and old, it doesn't matter
where you're at in life. Boy, we're privileged,
we're blessed to have the Holy Spirit of God
dwelling inside of, we're sealed with that Holy
Spirit problem. We ought to be sensitive to that
Holy Spirit. Be not drunk with wine, wear in
his excess, but be filled with the Spirit. And
it's important, the first month, the first year,
now, not later. Now look at verse number four.
Look at verse number four. Because as we go through
the closed doors, bad situation, he has a new
beginning, he begins to, well, look at the way
this is worded. And he brought in, you see verse
four? He brought in the priests and the who?
And gathered them together into the East Street.
Okay. is significant because all of a sudden,
first month, the first year right there, gotta
do a new beginning. I've got a chance, Lord.
I've got a chance. It doesn't matter my past.
It doesn't matter the way things are right here.
I've got a chance to make a decision. And he
begins to bring in the leadership. The priests
and the Levites are the leaders. They're the
leaders of the land spiritually speaking. Do
you understand? And he begins to lay down these
Levites and these priests, they are living in
a land of sin. They're almost in the land of
Ahaz. The doors of the temple are closed. They're
hiding. They're really pressed down. They are
discouraged. They're like having a church where
you have the doors open, but you got three people
there. Now, praise God for three people, but
I'm just saying, it's not a very encouraging
thing. And so all of a sudden he gets the leadership
together, the priests and the Levites, verse
five, and said unto them, hear me, ye Levites,
sanctify now. Who? Okay, now that's important.
Sanctify now, not later, but now sanctify now
yourselves. You priests, you Levites, we're not
gonna make a change in the nation that we're
living in. We're not gonna help people spiritually
unless we're helped ourselves. We gotta look
inwardly, we gotta check out ourselves. Are we
right with God? And Hezekiah, it's not a joke,
he approached him, I am demanding you, I'm not
suggesting, but in our nation, in our land right
here, in this beginning, I am demanding that
you, as a priest, as a Levi that you make sure
that you set apart yourself. You make sure that
you're holy, acceptable unto God. You're living
in such a way that honors the Lord. You have
a life that pleases the Lord. You're not gonna
be helped. The average, ordinary children of
Israel, the person living here in Judah, unless
you are right yourself. There's a lot here, a
lot. But listen, listen all. Wow, and there's
so much, there's so much. I'll give you a quick
story. I'm looking for my good buddy, old pal,
Matt Contrell. He's hiding in the sound booth.
He's gotten backslidden since he started coming
to church here. Trouble back there. Your dad
visited our church last week. And on Saturday,
I got to spend some time with your dad. He talked
about a difficult period of time in his life
spiritually. and he had spiritually gotten away
from the Lord in a great way. The Lord led him
to live close to Jacksonville. He's got a girlfriend,
and all of a sudden the Lord begins to prick
his heart. You haven't been in church in a while,
Brother Control, he's a Christian. So he goes
to church, and at the church, it's a Wednesday
night meeting, and there's just about six people
there, and they say, well, we're not really gonna
have a service tonight. We're just going to break
up in groups, the men with men and the ladies
with lady, and we're just going to pray. He said,
OK. So he took his girlfriend, and he went and
he began to pray. And all of a sudden, he began
to pour out his heart to God. He began to weep.
He began to cry. He began to say, God, I'm sorry.
And he told me. He said he began to confess his
sins. He began to think about how good God has
been to him and how much he's displeased God.
And he said, God, Give me another chance. By
the way, the two got married. And it's very interesting,
Brother Matt, but he said he went to church.
Now, he said, you know, God, I displease God.
I'd really put God on the shelf. But all of a
sudden, I'm going to church now. God will probably
never use me again. But I'm going to be faithful
to church. Then all of a sudden, the pastor came
up to him one day. And your dad told me this.
He said, hey, Brother Cantrell, could you do
me a favor? Think about this. He said, yeah.
He said, you know, we have that church sign in
the front of the church right there. He said,
would you mind, would you mind, please, maybe
once a month thinking about putting a message
on that front sign and changing it out? Would
you be willing to pray about that and do that?
And when he's telling me this, he almost has
tears in his eyes. And he says, all of a sudden
at that point, God said, that he could use me
again. God would allow me, me, the opportunity
to put a sermon once a week on a sign to tell
the world about Jesus and the humility that your
dad had. Your dad just said, God would allow
me, me, me, and he took time and prayed and studied
and worked and was faithful, putting that little
message on that sign. And after he became faithful
to that, all of a sudden he's faithful and he's
taking it seriously. He's humble, humility. All
of a sudden there was one class in there that
had some problems where the class went down to
about six people in his adult class. And the
pastor came up to him and said, hey, would you
consider maybe going and teaching this class?
He said, you would let me and my wife take over
this class and teach this class? There's only
six people. Well, no, no, no, no, no. They're
not six people. You're gonna allow me, and he
told me the story, you're gonna allow me to teach
this Sunday school class? Your dad said that.
And all of a sudden he said, he began to work.
He began to visit. He began to care for these
people, call on these people. He began to devote
his life, not just a Sunday, but he began to
devote his life to reaching out to people, inviting
people, caring for people, telling people about
Jesus. And that class all of a sudden went from
six people, to 10 people, to 20 people, to 30
people. And he said, we organized little getaways,
we did this, and we invited people, and we did
luncheons, and we did this, and it went to 50
people, and then 70 people, and then 80 people.
Did the class average 92 people? Wow. That's
amazing. But what's the point right there? He
said right here, it starts with me making sure
I'm right with God. And listen, for us, if we
want God to work in our lives, as a Sunday school
teacher, in the choir, in the special music,
in the nursing, whatever ministry that we're
involved in, the Spanish ministry, we gotta sanctify
ourselves, look inwardly, am I right with God?
Well, you look like it, but I don't know, I'm
not God, how do I know? But God knows. How are
you gonna help those people in your class, that
children's class, if you don't have a heart for
God and you're not right with God, you're not
sanctified with God? Well, believe in the leadership
requirements. It's not about leadership requirements.
It's about a relationship with the King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thine heart and an attitude is not
gonna help you. An attitude is what A has had.
The idea is we have to have humility, a heart
for God, leadership requirements, all of that.
That's so minute and so small, none of that matters.
It matters. But it shouldn't matter because you
have an opportunity to serve the King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. Well, I have a problem with
that. Well, have a problem with that and don't
be a Sunday school teacher then. I'm just saying
you're looking at it wrong. It's a privilege
to serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
It's not a right. I'm just saying it's not a
right. And when we have an attitude, God all
of a sudden says, okay, go ahead, have an attitude,
but you're not gonna help anybody spiritually
with an attitude. And that's the idea. Hezekiah
confronts it and says, Levites, sanctify now
yourselves. And then he says, and sanctify the
house of the Lord. your fathers and carry forth
the filthiness out of the holy place. That can
preach right there if you're not careful. That's
amazing. Get rid of the filthiness in your life.
And perhaps not the sermon, but it could be the
sermon. A lot of times we as God's people allow
not only filthiness in our own lives, but we
allow filthiness inside the house of the Lord,
the church. And oh boy, look at verse number
10. Now it is in mine heart. to make a covenant
with the Lord God of Israel that his fierce wrath
may turn away from us. And look at this plead.
He's talking to those Levites and the priests.
My sons, verse 11, my sons, be not now negligent.
Okay, what is he saying? Don't be careless about
your responsibilities. Don't be failing to do
what should be done for the Lord. Let's just
do right. Let's just do right. We have to face
the problem, we have to face the leadership,
we don't hide from the problems, and all of a
sudden we make a decision to do right by the
Lord. That is Christianity 101. Not rocket science.
Right? Amen? Okay, good, good, good, good, good,
good. We go to verse number 12. Okay, verse number
12. This really is interesting. This is so interesting.
Remember where we're at. Closed doors, Ahaz,
wickedness, a new beginning for Hezekiah. He
faced the problem, the leadership. He faced the
Levites right there. He didn't hide from the
problem. Now the Levites had to respond. Verse
12, then the Levites arose and the next few verses
are filled with names. Okay, I'm gonna just start
with a couple. Mayhath, the son of Amasai. and
Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites,
and God wanted us to know these names. These
names meant something to the Lord. Your name,
my name, they mean something to the Lord. The
Lord God Almighty knows your name, cares about
you as an individual. And that's so important.
Sometimes we get lost in the masses and we forget
that God cares about you, the individual, whether
you're a young child, eight, nine years of age,
whether you're a teenage lady or a teenage young
man, whether you're a single person and nobody
knows, well, God knows you, God cares about you.
And when you make a decision to do right by the
Lord, hey, God cares, God sees, and God writes
down your name knowing that. Look at verse number,
if you will, 15. And they gathered their brethren
and sanctified themselves. What did they do?
They sanctified themselves and came according
to the commandment of the king by the words of
the Lord to cleanse the house of the Lord. The
leaders responded rightly. Oh, you know, sometimes
a parent, you'll approach your child with correction.
By the way, a parent for whom the Lord loveth,
he correcteth, amen. even as a father, his son,
in whom he delighted. and you'll go to your son
or your daughter, and in a way, you're begging
and you're pleading because you know they're
right there, that you have an answer, you're
trying to help them, and there's an answer right
there. You're gonna show them the right path
to go on, but you can't force them to make that
decision. And you're almost, in a way, you feel
responsible for it, and you're responsible to
tell them the truth, to lead them to right right
there, just like Hezekiah was leading the priests
and the Levites to truth right there, but the
response was up to the individual. And parents,
listen, you cannot, you cannot control the response
of your teenager. You're gonna beg and plead,
but you're gonna demand it. You're gonna show
them what they're to do. And in the end, if they
respond wrong, they have to answer to the Almighty
God. But praise God, the Levites and the priests,
they gathered and sanctified themselves. Look
at verse 20. Then Hezekiah, the king rose early.
You see verse 20? He rose what? Okay, remember,
first year, first month, he ain't playing around.
He rose early and gathered the rulers of the
city and went up to the house of the Lord and
they brought seven bullocks and seven rams and
seven lambs and seven hegoats for sin offering
for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for
Judah and he commanded the priests and the sons
of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the Lord.
What is he doing? He's restoring biblical worship.
Look at verse number 28. And all the congregation,
all the congregation. Look at those three words
with me. All the congregation. Okay, get this.
Not even right now. All the congregation. Not
some of you. In here it's an example of this.
All the congregation. Not half of us here tonight,
but all the congregation. Say it with me. All
the congregation. All the, say it loud. All the
congregation, not some, but all. That's a problem.
Some people think they're too good to be a part
of the congregation of the house of God. Well,
that's good for you. But I don't have to do that.
OK, go ahead, have your attitude. Go ahead. That's
really helping the cause. Why have my rights?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're still not helping.
You have your rights. You can do whatever you
cotton picking please want to do. I may not be
saying that nice, but I'm thinking your attitude
is really helping the cause of Christ. And that's
the point right there. Hezekiah is demanding
all the congregation, all of, to do what? What
did they do? And all the congregation worshiped,
and the singers sang, and the trumpeteers sounded,
and all this continued. until the burnt offering
was finished. They all got busy in biblical worship.
Hey, you know what? One of the things we read
about, especially in the book of 1 Corinthians,
is a church divided, a church that has chaos,
you might say. And all of a sudden, Paul, inspired
by God, brings them together and says basically,
you read chapter one, two, three, it talks about
them. Was Christ divided? Was Paul crucified
for you? And he talks about a church in unity,
a unity around getting the gospel to a lost and
dying world, unity around all of a sudden a church
preaching the word of God. It's an amazing, amazing
truth right there. a united church, this revival
that we long for, this revival that we want,
this new beginning where we want God's blessing,
it is available, but there certainly is a path
to revival. And inside of a church, boy, it's
all of us working together in worship, in singing,
in trumpeteering, and continuing with the burn
-off as we're about to finish. Now, here's the
very end of the sermon because, wow, verse 36.
Hezekiah, what? And, what? Hezekiah rejoiced
and all the people. You know, we like the results
of a revival. I do, and you get done with the
like revival, souls being saved, a church together,
and they're in unity, and there's happiness,
there's joy. Woo! Woo! And it's good, like, I
wanna say it's good. It doesn't get any better
than being in the blessing of the Lord. It just
doesn't. But remember where it started. It started
with King Ahaz and the sin. It started there.
But it then started with a new beginning. Hezekiah
is saying, listen. I've got a chance. I'm the
king, and I don't want our nation to live this
way. I'm gonna take a stand. If nobody stands
with me, I'm gonna take a stand. We're gonna
open those doors. We're gonna have sanctified,
set -apart leadership. We're gonna open the house
of the Lord. We're gonna open doors right there,
and we're gonna beg God in humility to work together
to have the blessing of God. And it says this,
and Hezekiah rejoiced in all the people that
God had prepared the people for the thing that
was done. Suddenly. You look back at it, and
you can see in that first year, in the first
month, shortly afterwards, Hezekiah got done.
And next thing you know, the nation, the nation
that was oppressed by the devil, you might say,
and really smitten by God at that time, that
you read it, that's what it's talking about right
there, all of a sudden came alive in revival,
and it happened suddenly. God turned a bad situation
over that turned the leaf over right there and
turned it into a Roaring success. You might say
a filled with rejoice and it happened like that
Revival in your life can happen quickly Revival
in your family's life can happen quickly. I mean
it can happen suddenly quickly Yeah, you can
happen but but boys sanctified leadership Taking
that new beginning and being serious about the
things of God. Boy, restoring biblical worship
in your home, in your heart, in your mind, absolutely.
And right there, boy, bringing the congregation
together in unity right there. Oh, revival begins
when God's people quit neglecting God and start
seeking him again. It's a challenge to you. It's
a challenge to me to reopen those spiritual doors
of neglect that have been closed. And it's a
call for you and it's a call for me to examine
our hearts and examine our minds. Am I living
with rejoicing in the revival God has brought
to my heart or am I living weighed down by the
sin and misery? That's a terrible place to be.
Have a new beginning tonight. Go to God tonight.
Be humble tonight. Ask God for a new chance tonight.
and then begin to make changes tonight, and you'll
look back suddenly, you'll see God working in
a great way. Dear Father in heaven, we love you.
It's a truth I needed. Believe it's a truth our
church needs. Certainly families need. And at
revival, it's possible. Even in the bleakest,
most difficult, And Lord, if it's just for one
person tonight, it's worth it. One family, it's
worth it. But I pray that you help all of us,
every one of us as a congregation, examine our
hearts and our minds, help us to kick out the
pride, come humbly before you, and work in a
great way tonight. We need you, Lord, and ask
you to bless in a great way. the invitation in
Jesus' name, amen. Stand with me if you will.
Piano and organ are gonna play. Pray that you
do business with God.