All right, take your Bibles, if you will. Turn
with me to the book of 2 Chronicles chapter number,
if you will, 30, 2 Chronicles chapter number
30. And wow, this Sunday evening, sermons through
the book of 2 Chronicles has been absolutely
a blessing to me. We've been looking at different
kings. We're in King Hezekiah, and King Hezekiah
came into a difficult situation. His dad Ahaz,
a wicked king, his dad Ahaz, led the southern
kingdom of Judah into sin, idol worship, and
his dad. led the kingdom into sin and not God's
blessing, but really God's judgment. And King
Hesentai becomes the king and immediately makes
a decision. He said, you know, it doesn't matter
the way it's been before. I've got a new beginning.
I have a new opportunity. I have a new opportunity
to serve God, to live for God. And he began to
change the nation, began to lead the community
into revival. If you look with me at 2 Chronicles
chapter 30, verse number 13, if you look at this,
And they're assembled at Jerusalem, much people
to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the
second month and a very great, what does it say,
congregation. Look at verse number 15. Then they
killed the. Passover on the 14th day of the second
month. And you remember the story from last week,
all of a sudden Hezekiah says, listen, we're
going to have the Passover. We're going to celebrate
the Passover feast. We're going to remember the
Lamb, which signified the Lamb of God, which
took away the sin of the world. And he began
to gather the people and beg people to come.
And by the way, some people came and many did
not. There were scoffers. But it didn't matter.
People came and a revival began to take place.
Now, this is important. A revival began to take
place. People came and began to get busy in the
work of the Lord. Look with me at verse number
26. So there was great joy in what? Whoa, do
you see that? Second Chronicles chapter 30 verse
20. So there was what? great joy in Jerusalem,
for since the time of Solomon, the son of David,
king of Israel, there was not the like in Jerusalem.
They began to sell, and there hadn't been a revival.
There hadn't been a Passover feast like Solomon.
And the Bible begins to lay out that revival
service. Now, we're gonna stand in a moment for
the reading of God's word, but before we stand,
you have to understand, a revival meeting, the
emotion, the excitement of God working. In a
way, this is a revival meeting. When you got
the deacons up there and Brother Barry up there
and we're dreaming about planting a church and
seeing a community forever changed, that rejoices
my heart. Seeing Brother Paden, he got emotional
up there because we've seen God do it in the
past and we're seeing God do it. And if you've
ever been a part of a revival meeting, the emotion,
I've been in revival meetings where the preacher
preaches the word of God and all of a sudden
God begins working in my heart. And I remember
many times at the end of a revival service, I
come running to the front and I begin to get
on my knees and I begin to sometimes confess
my sin and give my heart back over to God. And
there is emotion, great emotion in a revival
service with the preaching of God's word and
God's working in my heart. And there's excitement
in a revival. There is. Now if you can't stand
for the reading of God's word, because here's
where the message is going tonight. There's a
revival. God's working in a great way, but what
happens after revival? What happens after that
revival meeting? Look with me at 2 Chronicles
chapter 31, verse number one, and if you will,
read with me verse number one altogether. Ready?
Now when all this was finished, all Israel that
were present went out to the cities of Judah
and break the images in pieces and cut down the
groves and threw down the high places and the
altars out of all Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim
also and Manasseh until they had utterly destroyed
them all. Then all the children of Israel returned
every man to his possession into their own cities.
This is fascinating, we'll go more into depth
on this, but revival, the meeting is over, we're
going home, God's worked in my heart and my mind,
and we're gonna go back and live the way we used
to live. No, no, no, no. After revival, something
happened, and this is important in all of our
lives. When we get revival, go to a revival meeting,
we go to a church service. We read the word of
God, and God begins to work in our heart, and
we're emotional. There's nothing wrong with emotional,
but what happens the next day? What happens the
next week? What happens when you go home? What
happens after the revival? Before we go any further,
let's pray. Dear Father in heaven, we love you.
It's been a great night. And I want to slow down
and not be hasty in this message. I also want
to be... cognizant of people's time. I pray that
you help us to have wisdom in that. Help us to
have ears to hear. And I believe everybody here
this evening has been to one of those revival
meetings where you've worked in a great way.
You've worked in our hearts. Help us to think
about what happens after revival. And I do believe
decisions need to be made. We do need you, Lord.
We do love you. Please help us in Jesus' name.
Amen. you may be seated. What happens after revival?
Wow. We get to the first part, the revival's
done and the people begin to go home. And as
they go home, God had worked in their lives and
if you ever been there to a revival meeting,
you begin to make decisions. When I'm going home.
Tomorrow, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going
to live for God. I'm going to serve God. And
in your mind, you begin to think about things
in your life that are not pleasing to the Lord.
And that's what happened. The first part, when
the revival led to destroyed idols, that first
verse right there in verse number one. Now, when
all this was finished, when that revival, that
Passover was finished, all Israel that were present
went out to the cities of Judah and break the
images. in pieces and cut down the groves. They
break the images in what? And look at that, cut
down the groves and threw down the high places
in the old. Now I was trying to think about how
to illustrate this and in my office I was thinking
of something that I could pretend or use as an
idol and I had this thing right here and this
was a present, a birthday present or a Christmas
present. from my son Samuel, and it's sitting
there on my bookshelf. And it is precious to
me. My Samuel gave it to me. Samuel, you gave
that to me. And I thought about, you know, the
great thing to do would be to take a hammer and
pretend that's an idol. We're going to break
that down. And so I did the smart thing. I think
I went and I talked to Samuel. I said, you know,
Samuel gave that to me. Would it be OK for me
to use that as an illustration of breaking down
an idol? And he just looked at me with that,
uh, I wouldn't prefer you do that, Dad. Can I
find another idol in our house? I don't know
if that's exactly the wording that I liked, but
next thing you know, he comes and he says, Dad,
could you use this? and he had won an award,
a little trophy right there, and I thought about
that, and he was concerned about you, Matthew,
as one of your games that he won that in, and
he was concerned about that as an idol. And next
thing you know, my kids, behind the scenes, they
decided the best thing is rather than choosing
this as an idol or this as an idol, they decided
to spend the afternoon making an idol. So, what
they did right here is at pastor's house this
afternoon, the kids, they made an idol. And I
don't think that's good for a pastor's kid to
do, by the way. I think that's a bad thing to
do. But this is, pretend this is the idol. They
came out after that revival and they began to
look for things in their lives that were displeasing
to the Almighty God. And they said, this has
no business being in my house. This has no business
being in my life. This has no business being
in the forefront of my mind. And they begin to
break them down. And you think about this, you
can almost, they broke the idol and they broke
it to smithereens, to pieces, the Bible says
right there. They cut down the groves. They threw
down the high places. In other words, they destroyed
idols. They made a decision. By the way, is this
a one -time thing in the word of God? Now, by
the way, this is something interesting. When
you read the Word of God, you notice a theme
and a thread throughout the Word of God. In the
New Testament, there were Christians in Ephesus.
And in Acts chapter number 19, there was a great
revival in Ephesus. And by the way, in the revival,
you can almost hear in the background some preaching,
some examples, some understanding what happened
in Hezekiah's time that all of a sudden influenced
the future generation. And this is wild. In Acts
chapter number 19, after a revival service, it
says this. It says, many of them also, which
used curious arts, brought their books together
and burned them, burned them before all men.
And they counted the price of them and found
it 50 ,000 pieces of silver. So mightily grew
the word of God and prevail. In other words,
revival leads to idols that are destroyed. Revival
leads to making changes in our everyday life.
50 ,000 pieces of silver, I thought this was
interesting. A piece of silver represented a
day's wages. 50 ,000 pieces represented 50 ,000
day's wages. In other words, if a person worked
six days a week, about... 312 work days per year,
it would be 50 ,000 work days. That's roughly
160 years of labor. And that's not one person's
library. It's a combined value of all those books.
And you think about that, that's an amazing fact.
Money was not the matter. It doesn't matter how
much that idol cost. It doesn't matter how much
effort we put into building. What matters is
our lives pleasing the Almighty God. Now here's
part, just a minor part, but it's not really
a minor part. In our hearts and in our minds,
When God gets ahold of our hearts in a revival
service, in a church service, while we're reading
the Word of God, if we look in our lives and
we have an idol, let's tear them down. Let's
be willing to get rid of them. I'll never forget,
I was a young man, I think 21, 22 years of age,
in Virginia Beach, and I remember one of those
revival services, the preaching of God's Word,
and I remember a young man named Ronnie, he came
up to me and he said, brother Matt, Boy, the
God worked in my heart. He said, I've got these
books, and I've got these things that are displeasing
to God, and I don't just want to throw them in
the trash. I want to burn them. He says, will
you help me? At that period of time, I lived
on a boat. I was in the Navy. I said, sure. So
we drove on Indian River Road. He gathered up
his witchcraft books and his different books.
And I went into the 7 -Eleven there on Indian
River Road in Kempsville. I bought me a Bic lighter.
And then I said, well, he said, well, where are
we going to do this? I said, I don't know. Let's
go find this place. We began to drive out to
Virginia Beach Pungo into the country, or what
I thought was the country. We found a deserted
road that was really not deserted. And in the
middle of the road, we took that pile of witchcraft
books and different things and we lit them. And
all of a sudden, a bonfire. in Pungo in the middle
of the road. It was great. It was great until
that car started coming our direction. And all
of a sudden he pulled up next to us and he said,
I'm an off -duty policeman. What are you doing?
I was dressed in my shirt and tie and I said,
well, he's getting rid of his sin and I'm just
helping him. And he gave me that look and he
says, I'm gonna pretend I didn't see ya. Have
a good night. I don't recommend that way, but
what I wanna say is I do recommend getting rid
of the idols in your life. Look at verse number
two, if you will. Actually, skipped over to verse
number four. Not only revival lead to destroyed
idols, but in verse four, moreover, he commanded
the people. Do you see that in verse four? Moreover.
He commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem
to give the portion of the priests and the Levites
that they might be encouraged in the law of the
Lord. And as you begin to look at that, all of
a sudden Hezekiah realized that God's people,
the Levites and the priests, they were neglected.
People had forgotten the importance of taking
care of the priests and the Levites. So he began
to command them. He says, hey, revival should
lead us to have a giving heart. Revival should
lead us to be generous. Revival should lead us
to give towards the work of the Lord. By the
way, look at verse number five. And as soon as
the commandment came abroad, the children of
Israel, the children of Israel brought in abundance.
By the way, the children of Israel, it doesn't
say they complained. It doesn't say that they
murmured. It didn't say that they gave grudgingly.
There was a certain excitement about it. It says
that they brought, right there in verse number
five, they brought of the abundance the first
fruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey. Brother
Jordan, bring that honey. And of all, the increase
of the field and the tithe of all things brought
they, and it uses that word, in abundantly. abundantly.
It continues halfway through verse six. They
also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep and
the tithe of holy things. Look at verse seven.
And if you miss verse seven, this is absolutely
wild what happened. In the third month, they
began to lay the foundation of the heaps. What
in the world is the foundation of the heaps?
That's a good question, the foundation of the
heaps. and finished them in the seventh month.
And when Hezekiah and the princes came and saw
the heaps, the heaps, heaps, they blessed the
Lord. There was so much grain. There was so much
abundance that they begin to bring it down, that
they begin to lay it down in a foundation where
they stacked the goods on a foundation. And then
they put another layer on that foundation. And
they put another layer. And next thing you know,
from the foundation up, It's a heap of offerings.
Now, it's an abundance. It's an amazing that
people, God's people, begin, because of revival,
begin to understand the importance of generosity.
The tithe is the Lord. God commands us to give.
I get to be a part of this great offering right
here. It's not that I have to give, I get to
give. And that's a glorious truth. One of the
great truths that we have as Christians is we
don't have to give, we get to give. with our
lives. Jesus came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister and give his life a ransom for
many. Jesus gives us the example of a life that's
given. We as Christians ought to take our lives
and give them over to God to be used of the Lord
to preach the gospel. By the way, your mom and
dad, you have kids? Those children are a gift
from the Almighty God. And you ought to give
yourselves to raising those kids. Train up your
children to nurture and admonition of the Lord.
You're training your child to live for God. You're
giving your life. By the way, Sunday school teachers,
remember, you're giving your life to train and
to reach people with the gospel and teach them
the word of God. Boy, the choir, you're giving
your voices to lift up in honor of the Almighty
God. We as a church, when we go out on a Saturday,
we're giving our lives to get out the gospel.
And we begin to think about it. We bring the
$5 offerings. Wow, what a joyous morning we had.
That was an abundance. That was almost twice
as much as we could have thought right there.
That's heaps. That comes from a heart that desires
to give to the work of the Lord. And part of
a revival is giving. Now a quick story, Jim Bossie.
He was a man in business. He's been to our church.
but he was a man that lived his life for himself.
He owned shopping centers, he owned houses, he
owned much things, but at 50 -some years of age,
he got gloriously saved. And all of a sudden,
he began to say, man, in my heart and in my mind,
I've lived my life, my first 50 years of my life
for me. And he began to think about, boy, I'd
like to take the rest of the life that God's
given to me and use it for him. So he began to
make decisions. By the way, one of those decisions,
he had a shopping center and he decided to take
that shopping center and at first he was gonna
sell it and give to church planting. But then
he decided, somebody talked to him, he says,
well, why don't you take that same shopping center,
it's worth about $3 million right now, and why
don't you rent it out and take the proceeds that
you get from it and give it to the work of the
Lord. So he said, okay, I'll do that. He got
a property manager and started using that. That
was 20 years ago. That building's worth over
$10 million. Now that building now gives about
$1 million. It's a 10 % cap rate, about $1 million
towards church planting every year. Our church
over in Suffolk, they got, I think it was $70
,000 from Jim Bossy, the foundation right there,
to help buy their building. And all over America,
church after church after church after church
has been blessed by that. that man's heart to
give. God uses your giving for his honor and
his glory. Boy, I heard this morning one of the
kids, he's like, and I think it was my son Amos,
he came up and he was just talking about trying
to save up and be a part when he gets to the
$100 mark right there. He said, I want to have
a part in doing the $100. A kid, six years of
age, but that's an important, a kid at six years
of age can have a heart. When you get revival
in your heart, a heart to be generous. Now here's.
The interesting part, get to, if you will, to
verse number 11. This is the last part of the
message. Remember, revival. Revival. What happens
after revival? Well, we go home, we see anything
that might be an idol in our life, and the idol
is something that keeps us away from God. We
get rid of it. We even destroy it. Boy, we get
revival in our lives. We go home. And our priorities
become outward. We give a life. Our life becomes
a life where we give it over to God. God, my
life is yours. And I say that often. My life
is yours to control. We give generously of our
finances to the work of the Lord. Then this one,
though, is very interesting because verse 11,
really through verse number 19, is almost the
majority of the chapter. And this portion of
scripture, you know, the excitement of idols
being destroyed, the excitement of heaps, heaps
and more heaps. But then there's these verses
at the end of chapter 31, verse number 10, we
begin to spend almost a half a chapter where
it begins to talk about, it gives a list of names.
And it begins to talk about organization. administration,
and it begins to talk about storehouses and workers
and names and almost a pastor, woo, the idols
are destroyed. We're happy about that. We preach
about that. Boy, preachers love to preach about
giving. Man, we get to give. Woo, glory. And
everybody says amen, amen, amen. But we get to
this next part. And it's the biggest part of
the message. After revival, yes, we ought to
destroy the idols. After the revival, yes, we
ought to have a heart to give. But after revival,
well, you'll see it. Look at this if you see
it in verse number 12. Look at the way it's worded
here, verse number 12. And it's hard to look
at verse 11. Then Hezekiah commanded to prepare
chambers in the house of the Lord, and they prepared
them, and brought in the offerings. And the tithes
and the dedicated things. And look at this word
right here. Faithfully. Now, faithfully, that
word, faithfully. And watch what happens here.
Watch this. And it's hard if you miss it. Faithfully
over which Conanaiah the Levite was ruler and
Shimei his brother was the next. And these names
are important. And Jehiel and Azaziah. and Nahath,
and Asahel, and Jeremoth, and Jozebad, and Eliel,
and Ismakiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah, who are
overseers under the hand of Koniah and Shimei,
his brother, at the commandment of Hezekiah the
king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God.
And verse 14, and Cory, the son of Imnah, the
Levite, the porter toward the east, was over
the free will offerings of God to distribute
the oblations of the Lord and the most holy things.
And next, him were Eden and Menenehemen and Jeshua
and Shememiah and Amariah and Shekiniah in the
cities of the priest and the set office to give
the bread. And it keeps going. It seems minor,
but these names are important. Look at verse
18, look at this. And to the genealogy. of all
their little ones, little ones, the children,
their wives, and their sons, and their daughters,
through all the congregation, for in their set
office they sanctified themselves in holiness.
Now this is, I think, could be the most important
thing after revival. After revival, idols destroyed,
woo! After revival, the people have a heart to
give generously, whoo, heaps. But after revival,
the important of remaining faithful. Faithful
in the little things. Faithful in what God has
called you to do. Faithful in just everyday Christianity.
Faithful in the little things. By the way, think
about it. Faithful in being a choir member. Faithful
in opening the doors on Sunday morning. Faithful
in cleaning the bathrooms. Faithful in being
a Sunday school teacher. Faithful in doing a
follow -up visit. Faithful in the sound booth.
Faithful in the singing behind here. Faithful
in playing the organ and the pianos. Faithful
in helping out in the nursery. Faithful in your
everyday telling people about Jesus. By the way,
it doesn't finish there. Faithful in being a
good husband. Faithful in being a good wife.
Faithful and being a teenager that has a heart
for God. Faithful being a young couple, being
ready to serve the King of Kings, the Lord of
Lords. That list can go on and on and on. There's
administration. There's taking care of things.
And each and every one of those names was given
to us to remind us the importance that after
revival, it's desired of God for us to be faithful.
Now, I think about that. Well. Pastor, that is
true in the Old Testament, but that's an Old
Testament truth. Well, guess what? It is an Old
Testament truth, but it's also a New Testament
truth. And you get to the book of 1 Corinthians
chapter number four, the famous verse, moreover,
it is required in stewards. that a man be found
faithful, faithful in the little things. Now,
after revival, yes, tear down the idols, but
you ought not tear them down every day, just
get done with it. Then have a heart to give,
yes, you gotta have a heart to give, absolutely,
but just day after day, week after week, month
after month, be faithful in the little things.
Well, nobody notices, well, God does. Be faithful
in the little things. Well, it doesn't matter.
You're looking at it wrong. Just be faithful
in the work that God has called you to do. Be
faithful. Don't complain. Just get busy being
faithful. We need teenagers today to just make
a commitment. that listen, God's given me an
opportunity of a lifetime to be a teenager, living
for Him. I'm gonna be faithful not only in my
teenage years, but in my early 20s, in my 30s,
my 40s, my 50s, my 60s, till I go home to be
with the Lord. Boy, we need, Brother Dan Menke,
continue to be faithful, faithful. Sometimes
doors in ministry slam shut, and all of a sudden,
why did that happen? Well, it doesn't matter
why it happened, it just happened. Be faithful
to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You need
to continue doing the work that you're doing.
Deacons, behind the scenes, you're praying for
the people of the church. You work hard to follow
up on people, and it doesn't always go our way,
but that doesn't matter. Be faithful to the things
of God. I want to beg you and plead with your
church. Understand the importance, the importance
of being faithful. Faithful, okay. That would
be the sermon, and it is the sermon, but it's,
look at this, look at verse number 20. How do
you skip this? Verse number 20, look at this.
And thus, did who? Okay, and thus did Hezekiah
throughout all Judah and wrought that which was
good and, okay, you guys got the good, but you've
skipped the right, okay, was good and right and
truth before the Lord his God. Now, This is important.
When you see this, and I titled this an extra
sermon, but not a long one. It's not a long one,
it's a short sermon. It's a very short sermon,
okay? But it's an extra sermon that God wanted
us to see. And it's a sermon that something that
Hezekiah did, not before necessary, his idea
wasn't to do it to be seen of men, but it was
done before the Lord his God. It was something,
and what did he do? He did, first of all, good.
Now think about that word, good. He did good.
Okay, he did what? Good. Okay, if you stomp your
foot with me and make me feel better, he did
good. Okay, good. So good, he was doing what
benefits others and pleases God. His good focused
on the benefit of his actions. In other words,
you know, boil this down, Hezekiah was not selfish.
He wasn't merely doing what helped or what benefited
himself. He was doing what was good for God's
people and God's work. That is a good truth.
That means it benefits us, okay? But good, you
know, in our lives, in many sermon, make sure
that we do good. Make sure that we do things
that benefit other people. In other words, we
have to lower our self. and really humble ourselves
and do good and try to be a blessing to everybody
in the will of God. God wants us to do good.
We'd say amen to that. Okay, if you don't say
amen to that, that point gets a little bit longer,
but you did good. It's good, right? Then the
second one was right. Right, okay. Right, what
is right? Right is doing what agrees with God's
standard. What's God's standard? I need a sermon
on the Bible pretty soon, but what's God's standard?
What is right? The word of God is right. This
is a book that is true from beginning to end.
And so right is doing what agrees with God's
standard. Right focuses on correctness. Right
focuses on not what the culture says or what
tradition says or what is popular today. Right
is focused on what God desires. In order to know
what is right, you need to get into the right
book. You need to saturate your heart and mind
in the word of God. Hezekiah, before the Lord,
he did good. But then he also did right, okay?
He did good. It's beneficial to everybody else.
It's not selfish. It's about God's will, helping
other people. And he didn't worry about being
a master or a lord. He sought to be a servant,
you might say. But he did not only good, he did
that was right. He governed his life by the word
of God. Then the last one is truth. Now truth,
this is interesting. Truth is doing it sincerely.
and faithfully from his heart. Now, what this
thing about truth, truth is, is focusing on being
genuine. There's not hypocrisy in his life. There's
not pretending in his life. He's not putting
on a show with his life. What Hezekiah was publicly,
what Hezekiah was publicly matched what he was
privately. That is awesome. That's important
for all of us to be truthful. We ought not be
one way at church and another way at home. Now,
I'm not saying we're perfect, but generally speaking,
you ought to be the same at church and the same
at home. You ought to be somebody who's doing
good, and you're somebody that's living by right,
and you're doing something that's truth, you're
genuine. Oh, boy, we have a lot to work on, don't
we? God looked at Hezekiah, and He said, I want
everybody to know this about Hezekiah. Why did
he want us to know about it? Because it's an
example that we could follow. We can do good.
We can live a life of right, and we can live
a life of truth right there. Okay, we're done
with the sermon and the end right here. I'm gonna
break it down right there again. At the very
end, revival. Whoo! Chapter number 30, revival,
Passover. God's working in a great way. And all
of a sudden, what happens after revival? What
happens after the emotional church service? God's
worked on your heart. Well, I'm going to go home.
I'm going to bust up those idols. I'm going to
go to my house. Anything that doesn't please
the Lord, they be gone. They be out of here.
Then all of a sudden, boy, there's a need. Boy,
I'm going to give generously. I'm going to make
sure that those priests and Levites are taken
care of. Next thing you know, they got heaps
upon heaps. There's a foundation of heaps. But
then the last one is faithful. Let's be faithful.
Now here's the question, is there an idol that
needs to come down in your life? Is there, go
home and take care of it. Is there an area of
obedience where God is asking you to trust him,
maybe in giving? Go home and get busy and be
generous. But number three, are you being faithful,
faithful, where God has placed you? Faithful
in just the everyday things that God would have
you to do. It's required that we're faithful.
In reality, the faithfulness on the little things
is the main thing of the whole chapter right
there. Let's go to Lord in prayer. Dear Father
in heaven, we love you. It's a good truth. It's
been a great night. Thank you for blessing us.
And through the history of our church, we've
seen those revival services. We've seen the emotion.
Help us after those revival service Make those
decisions where the idols are torn down And I
prayed even tonight where you've worked on somebody's
heart in your mind about something in their life
to be done with it Help it with the generosity
help us to be givers live a life of giving And
then Lord I pray that you help us probably the
most important thing is just to be faithful Just
in the everyday things of life Lord, but you've
called us to do maybe the routine of being faithful.
Then Lord, I pray that you help us examine ourselves
on that word good, that word right, and that
word truth. We love you, we ask that you bless
the invitation in Jesus' name, amen. Stand with
me if you will. I'm gonna invite you to do business
with God as the piano and the organ play.