What a great testimony. Take your Bible, turn with me, if you would, to the book of 2 Kings, chapter 20. 2 Kings 20. Thank you, Sarah. Appreciate that. 2 Kings, chapter 20. The title of the message this morning is Weakness and Strength. You know, it's an odd, you know, we think about strength itself. What are the benefits of physical strength? It seems like an odd question to start out with. It seems so obvious to us. Little boys want to be strong. Even older boys want to be strong, right? We go to the gym, you work out, you do push-ups, sit-ups. You spend all that time trying to build physical strength. We take vitamins because we want to be strong. We eat good food because we want to be strong. We eat salad because we want to be strong, apparently. I don't think that works, but we want to be strong, so we do what we need to do to get strong. What are the benefits of strength? There's so many. Have you ever thought about what are the benefits of weakness? What's the secret to success and failure? What circumstances would lead us to being successful? And we think about weakness. Why would we embrace our weakness? What does weakness bring to the table? What benefit could weakness possibly have? You think about this, actually, I think that physical strength and physical weakness are often related in this way, that those who are physically strong often don't think they need spiritual strength. And those who are physically weak must come to grips with the fact that they need spiritual strength. Physical strength and spiritual strength often do not coexist in the same person. Often when we're physically strong, that's when we're furthest from our spiritual strength. but often when we're spiritually weak, that's when, or sorry, physically weak, that's when God speaks to us in a special way and works in our lives in a special way, and often it's in our physical weakness that God is magnified. We're seeing the story today about a king named Hezekiah. We've talked about Hezekiah before. His name means strength, strength of the Lord, Hezekiah. God is strength. And there's a man whose name means strength or courage, and we'll see what God does in his life here in this sermon titled, Weakness and Strength. Bow with me in prayer as we begin, Father. We ask You, please, to work to help us to see where we are weak and we need Your strength. But Lord, especially now, bring us the warning of our pride and our physical strength and the things that we, it's so easy for us to embrace our physical strength to the neglect of our spiritual needs. And so today, Father, help us to take the warning, but also the encouragement to know that you're working and that you use prayer in mighty ways. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. The first point on your outline, which you'll find in your bulletin, is very straightforward, that spiritual strength in times of weakness, that God often brings spiritual strength in times of weakness. When you're in a time of physical weakness, we normally don't like it. We try to escape it. I mean, most of our prayer requests involves something along the lines of people in physical dire straits. They're saying, I'm in trouble. My feet hurt, my back hurts, my body is falling apart, and I need God to rescue me from this. I want to get rid of this physical problem. We normally find physical weakness undesirable, and I understand why that is the case. In this story, we're going to see four movements in this first part. The first movement is there's going to be a verdict. Then we see a prayer, then a reversal, and a sign. If you can follow that, there's going to be a verdict, a prayer, a reversal, and a sign. And we're going to see spiritual strength in each one of these scenes. The first thing is we're going to see spiritual strength comes in times of desperation. This is the time we see verse 1. In those days, Hezekiah was sick and near death. The man whose name is God is strength. He finds himself sick. He finds himself mortally ill. He is on death's door. And Isaiah the prophet, the same Isaiah we have a book named after in your Bible, Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz went to him and said to him, thus says Jehovah, thus says Yahweh, thus says the Lord, set your house in order for you shall die and not live. This was a time of physical weakness and it's a time of desperation. He is at the end. It's also a time of sorrow. We see at the end of verse three that he weeps bitterly. But did you know God can use times of weakness, and times of sorrow, and times of physical weakness for His glory. And when you're going through times of weakness, you need to recognize, Paul recognized this in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, he says, therefore, I take pleasure in my infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. How is that possible? We find strength in Christ when we are weak. In fact, he talks about, in this context, about what he calls a messenger of Satan, a thorn in the flesh that was sent to buffet him or to cause trouble in his life. And he pleads with God, Lord, please take away this thorn in the flesh. And what is God's answer to his request? God says no. My grace is sufficient for you." And this is in this context that Paul, the Apostle Paul says, I take pleasure in these things for when I am weak, then I am strong. Spiritual strength comes in times of desperation. When you are desperate, God will reach you, you will reach for God. When you're desperate, you will find yourself in need and you actually turn to Him much more likely. When we are physically strong, it doesn't even occur to us that we need God. You go through a whole day without needing God when you're physically strong. You can think that way at least. You can go through your life and not even occur to you to pray to God for help. But if you have physical needs and you're physically weak and you know the Lord, you know there's not a moment that passes when you're not leaning on the Lord. And so spiritual strength comes in times of desperation. It also comes through dependence. Look at these next two verses. As Isaiah gives the verdict. You will die and not live. Get your things in order. Set your house in order. Collect your things. You are going out. You are on your way out the door. God has said thus. It is God's will. You will be going that way. Something amazing happens. We have an insight here that's fascinating. Look at verse 2. He turned his face to the wall. The king. And he prayed to the Lord saying, Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth, and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly. When he faces the news, he shows his dependence on God and how he responds. He turns to the wall. He doesn't turn to Isaiah and speak to Isaiah. He turns away from him. He turns to the wall. He prays to God. Notice some things about this prayer. It's an immediate prayer. He doesn't wait around. He prays right then and there. We should pray immediately when things are upon our heart. We must go to God and pray. He reached out to God. He doesn't wait till next week. He prays now. It's an informal prayer. You notice he doesn't go to the temple. In the previous chapter, we see how he goes before the Lord in the temple. He lays out the letter before God, and he lays out this very formal request before God that speaks how great God is and how a magnificent God is, and how the Rabshakeh and the Assyrians had come and done these things, and he's reaching out to God. This man does not even get out of bed to pray. He is pleading. He is dependent on God. He doesn't do anything except turn to the wall privately and pray to God in this private prayer. He doesn't go to the temple. He prays right there in his own bed. And he calls to God. He says, Lord, remember me. Remember what I've done." And this is not, and it might seem to us like this is a proud prayer. I don't think it is in this context, and you notice this context biblically speaking in the Old Testament as well. Nehemiah had a similar prayer, Lord, remember me for good. This is a prayer to saying, Lord, remember that I have been faithful, and he's asking God to intervene on his behalf. He is helpless, and as Christians who have the Holy Spirit living in us, we can cry out to God in moments of weakness, even when you don't know what to say. One of the most encouraging verses in all the Bible, perhaps, is in Romans chapter eight, he says, likewise the spirit also helps in our weaknesses. There's weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. Have you ever found yourself here? When you're like, Lord, I just don't know what to do. I don't know what to pray. How do I pray in this situation? Do I pray for this? Do I pray for that? If you're a Christian and you have the Spirit living in you, you don't have to know the right words to pray. You just bring your heart to God. And it says, the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. The groanings, the grinding of your teeth, the horrible feelings you have in your heart that you can't express in words. Aren't you glad that God doesn't require you to form words and thoughts for you to be heard? He knows your innermost feelings even if you can't articulate them. And this is Hezekiah and his reliance upon God. In fact, I think a lot of what Hezekiah does is reflecting Jesus' instructions on prayer. I'm just gonna take a brief aside here and look at Matthew 6. When Jesus instructs prayer, you don't have to turn there, I'm gonna put it up on the screen. Jesus says this about prayer. He says, when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. Now, we say hypocrite, and you have a picture in your mind. That probably wasn't the same picture that the Jews and the, would have had that Jesus spoke the word hypocrite. Hypocrite just means an actor. It means a mask wearer. And so in the day there would be the drama, the theater, the Greek theater, and people would wear masks over their face, and they would be an actor. And Jesus says, do not pray like an actor, like a hypocrite, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues, on the corners of the streets, why, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward, but you, when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut your door pray to your father who is in the secret places and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly and when you pray do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do that just saying the same words over and over again hoping that by saying these things they think that they will be heard for their many words. Verse 8, therefore do not be like them for your father knows the thing you need before you ask. Did you notice Jesus' instructions here? Do not pray so people see you. They seek a reward that people would see them and say, wow, that person's prayer is magnificent. Wow, what an amazing, that person must be so close to God. He says, when you pray, go into your room secretly because God can see you there. No one else can. And when you pour out your heart before God, don't pray as a vain person or as a heathen person does with empty repetition. They think that somehow by repeating these empty words over and over again, you will convince God of your needs. He says, God knows what you need. God might be aware of things you don't even know you need. You have needs that you're not aware of, but God is. This brings us to an interesting point that God knows what we need, but expects us to ask for these things from him as a way of worshiping him. God does not just give you things without you asking for them. Prayer is important. He delights in giving good gifts to His children. Now, can God give you things without you asking? Of course He can. God is a merciful and gracious God. But God delights in giving gifts to His children. God delights in using prayer, so Hezekiah's prayer was such a sway. He turned his face to the wall, he did not use vain repetitions to manipulate God, and God knew his needs. And notice this helplessness that he had. In fact, helplessness in prayer is connected. Helplessness, the idea of helpless, if you don't think you're helpless, Then you will not approach God in prayer. And in fact, it's even worse than that. Helplessness is necessary for us if we're going to be saved by God. I was reading a book by Paul Miller called The Praying Life, and he connects these two. I put this quote up for you to see on the screen. He says, the gospel, God's free gift of grace in Jesus, only works when we realize we don't have it all together. The same is true for prayer. The very thing we are allergic to, our helplessness, is what makes prayer work. It works because we are helpless. We can't do life on our own. This is true with prayer. This is true with the gospel. And as a pastor who a lot of you have heard, Pastor Brad Bigney, who preaches out in Kentucky, actually, and he's involved with the counseling conference we take our people to, he says this, you're either desperate or you're delusional. And I love that. It's so true. You're helpless, you're desperate, or you're delusional. We're all weak, we're all dependent, and if you don't think you are, we don't like to be, but this works when we're helpless and we're dependent and we're desperate on God. It comes in times of desperation and dependence, and it comes when God answers prayer. Spiritual strength comes when God answers prayer. We know God answers prayer. We saw this all the way back in 2 Kings 19. Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah saying, thus says the Lord God of Israel, because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I have heard. God hears our prayer, and God will not hear if we do not pray. This is basic stuff. But it bears repeating, God hears and answers prayer. Look at verse four, and it happened before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court that the word of the Lord came to him saying, notice it was a quick answer, God heard. And God answered, so much so that Isaiah didn't even have time to get home. Now there's two ways you can read this, either he got to the middle of the city or the middle of the court, it doesn't matter really, he didn't even get all the way home, and God interrupts him. And God interrupts his servant and tells him, look at verse five, look at what your Bible says, return. You know that's the word for repent? It's the word for turn around, shuv in Hebrew. He says, turn around and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father, I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Surely I will heal you. On the third day, you shall go up to the house of the Lord. And I will add to your days 15 years. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend the city for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David. Then Isaiah said, take a lump of figs. They took it and laid it on the boil and he recovered. Notice the complete answer. He said, I will give you healing. You will have 15 more years of your life and I will deliver you from the Assyrians. So the timeframe of this story happens during the Assyrian siege, we assume. Notice God's promise to him, I have heard your prayer and I will heal you. And I will heal you so that in three days you will go up shortly. And then there's this ritualistic healing where he says, Isaiah, take these fig cakes and put them on the boil. He has apparently some sort of skin boil. And that will be the healing, that will be the way I will use to heal this. Notice God actually answers his prayer. And I want to be very clear, prayer does things. God hears, God listens, God sees, God answers, God delivers. Prayer is more than just talking to yourself. It's talking to God. Prayer is not self-talk, it's talking to the God of the universe. We speak to him, we plead to him. Jesus urges us to plead to him. He says, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. You are to pray to God, you are to speak to him. And I've heard it said, I think a lot of people may believe this. People say, and they may say this trying to be pious, saying, look, prayer doesn't really do anything. Our requests don't make any difference. It's that we are just aligning our hearts with God. We're just praying. and we're just doing whatever God is going to already do, but the Bible is full of examples otherwise, that God answers prayer. I'm going to show you a few passages, first out of the book of Amos. God's speaking here, thus says the Lord God, thus the Lord God showed me, Amos speaking here, Amos 7. Behold, he formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop. Indeed, it was the late crop after the king's mowings, and so it was when they had finished eating the grass of the land that I said, O Lord God, forgive, I pray, O that Jacob may stand, for he is small." And what does God do? So the Lord God relented concerning this, and He said, it shall not be. God answered prayer. And He withdrew His punishment that He was going to bring. He said He would bring punishment. He said, please forgive, please withdraw. And God answered His prayer. It happens again in the next three verses. The Lord God showed me. Behold, the Lord God called for conflict by fire, consumed the great deep, and devoured the territory. I said, O Lord God, cease, I pray, O that Jacob may stand, for he is small. So the Lord relented concerning this. This also shall not be, says the Lord God." This word, relent, is the same word for turn around. And some of your Bibles might even say repent. No, God doesn't repent of evil. God changes his mind here. That's what the word is, to repent or to change or to turn. that God actually responds to the prayer of the people. It's right there in black and white. God deals with us. And in fact, prayer is for you. It's for regular people. Verses like James chapter 5 have always fascinated me. He says, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. And I think, wow, that's impressive because I think of Elijah as being like a superhero. I think of him as being like a guy who's on another tier, but God's clear. He says, no, no, you don't understand. Elijah had the same problems you and I have. He had the same fears. He had the same difficulties. He was made of the same stuff that we're all made of. Elijah was a man like us, yet what did he do? He prayed earnestly that it would not rain. It did not rain on the land for three years and six months. God listened to him and God worked. A normal man prayed. God does things when people pray. Do I understand how that works? No, I don't understand how God is the God of the universe and how He can choose to allow prayers to work and how that works with His divine plan. I have no idea. I'm not pretending to know. All I'm telling you is what the Bible says is that when people pray, God listens, and that is amazing to me, that God chooses to listen to our prayers to Him, that God chooses out of His sovereignty to listen to you, and when you plead with Him, He hears you. It's just an amazing thing to me. God does these things. God, spiritual strength comes in times of desperation. It comes through dependence, and it comes when God answers prayer, and it comes when we choose faith. This next little scene is amazing. So we see a sign in verse 8. Hezekiah said to Isaiah, what is the sign the Lord will heal me that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day? Isaiah said, this is a sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing which he has spoken. Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, it's an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees. No, let the shadow go backward ten degrees. So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord. He brought the shadow ten degrees forward by which he had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz. Some sort of sundial, there's also the word degree means step, and so some people have thought that maybe this is actually a series of steps that the shadow would go across or go back. We don't actually know exactly the situation involved here, but it's probably some sort of sundial. And on the sundial, there is obviously a shadow, and he says, look, it's easy for you to speed up time. I want God to do something dramatic. I want him to roll it back. Again, how does this work? I don't know. But the faith it takes to ask God to do that. Now, I want you to think, remember another king who was asked about a sign? We talked about this a few weeks ago. King Ahaz, when he was there in the court and they were under pressure, and Isaiah, the same prophet, comes to him and he says, God will give you a sign. God will give you a sign of your deliverance. He will. Ask for any sign of the heavens above and the earth beneath. Ask for anything. And what did Ahaz do? How was his response? He said, I'm not going to ask. I will not test the Lord. Ahaz backs off and says, I don't want to test God. He has his false piety. Yet here Hezekiah is bold. He says, I'll test God. I'll ask God to prove himself. Now this provides an interesting question. Is this for us today? Are we supposed to ask for signs? God does not rebuke King Hezekiah. In fact, he seems to encourage this, but this does not seem to be a practical or a proper pattern for Christians to obey God today. We have today something he did not have. We have the completed canon of scripture. You have the whole of God's word in front of you. If King Hezekiah wanted to know what God was saying, he had to talk to a prophet. You have to just open your Bible. Secondly, you have the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God. It was not until after Pentecost that the believers in Christ as a norm had the indwelling Spirit of God in their hearts. you have the indwelling presence of the paraclete, the encourager, the comforter, and you have the completed Word of God. And so, because of that, God expects you to read and understand and apply His Word without needing signs. That is not the typical way we are to do it, but in this context, I cannot condemn Hezekiah for seeking a sign. The Scripture doesn't do that, and I don't think we should either. I think we understand him in his context, in this context, before the Bible was completed, and this particular thing, this was a choosing of faith. This was his way of choosing faith, to believe in God. And notice that God does exactly that. Look at verse 11. So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and he, God, brought the shadow back ten degrees backward, by which the gone-down-of-the-sun dial they has. God answered his prayer and gave it to him. What an amazing sign of faith. But One act, one moment of spiritual success does not inoculate you from spiritual failure. A man like this who in his weakness was strong, was later strong and finds weakness. And so we see in this second movement that spiritual weakness often comes in times of physical strength. And let this be a warning to those of us who are healthy, because this theme has presented itself throughout this sermon series, this theme of pride and humility, of blessing and accountability. We've seen it throughout. And we see Hezekiah's strength. Before we dive into this text, I want to show you something from 2 Chronicles chapter 32. This is a parallel passage, and it speaks to this about Hezekiah. Hezekiah had very great riches and honor. And he made himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and all kinds of desirable items. Storehouses for the harvest of grain, wine, and oil. Stalls for all kinds of livestock and folds for flocks. Moreover, he provided cities for himself and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance, for God had given him very much property. This same Hezekiah also stopped the water outlet of upper Gihon and brought the water by tunnel to the west side of the city of David. Hezekiah prospered in all his works. Hezekiah was an engineer. Hezekiah was a scientist. He loved experimenting with things and developing things. He was a builder. Hezekiah saw great, great strength, and when he had built all these things, he had done all these things, he had accumulated all these things, we see in verse 12 that the king of Babylon comes to him, and at this point, the king of Babylon does not seem that powerful because Babylon has been trampled all over by Assyria. Babylon felt like a friend, like an ally, not an enemy. But Hezekiah let his guard down. Look with me in verse 12. Baradoc Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. Here's the king, Baradoc Baladan. He wasn't a leader of a large empire. He was just the king of Babylon under the power of Assyria. He hears that Hezekiah is sick, and strength makes you vulnerable to pride. Notice how Hezekiah responds in verse 13. It says, Hezekiah was attentive to them. That's he listened to them. And he showed them all the house of his treasures, the silver and gold, the spice and precious ointment, and all his armory, all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. He listened to them. He gave in to their flattery. They showed up. They heard he was sick. They sent a letter. They come and they bring a present. And he's just tickled. What a great, what a neat thing. Somebody thought about me. Somebody was caring about me. Somebody came here to check on me. Wow, let me show you everything I have. In fact, in 2 Chronicles we find that God did this to test all that was in his heart. In 2 Chronicles 32 again, in verse 31 it says, regarding the ambassadors of the prince of Babylon whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, God withdrew from him in order to test him. That he might know that all that was in his heart, but Hezekiah did not repay according to the favor shown him, for his heart was lifted up." Hezekiah's heart was lifted up by pride. Given another lease on life, given another few years of living, he is accumulating things for himself. It's so easy to understand how this happens, isn't it? Isn't it easy for us to see how someone who has all these benefits is susceptible to pride and flattery? People know us, somebody who's important knows your name, they're interested in your health, they're enamored with your accomplishments, and you'll fall into the same trap as Hezekiah did. You will be sucked into being vulnerable to pride. But God doesn't let this sit. God confronts his pride. Look at verse 14. Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah. Same prophet, same king. He said to him, what did these men say? From where did they come to you? And Hezekiah said, they came from the far country from Babylon. Notice, God confronts Hezekiah. He asks simple questions. What did they say? Where did they come from? His answer, they come from a far country. He doesn't tell him what they said. He skips over the first question completely. He doesn't want to tell Isaiah what they've said. They've come from a far country. They don't matter. They're from a long ways off. This reminds me of Joshua and the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites show up pretending to be from a far country, and the people of Israel take them in and say, oh, we will help you. We'll enter into a covenant with you, because you're from a far country. You're from a long ways off. We don't have to worry about dealing with you in war. His pride blinded him to the danger that was all around him. He doesn't answer, what did they say to you? He just answers where they were, and he ignores the prophet. He continues. Look at verse 15. Isaiah said, what have they seen in your house? Hezekiah answered, they've seen all that's in my house. There's nothing among my treasures. I have not shown them. Everything is what they saw. They saw everything. I didn't hide anything. I exposed it all to them. Why would he do this? Why would he show everything to someone who's a foreign power? Well, he was boasting. He was proud. He was responding to having a foreign dignitary come and show personal interest in his health. And we know from Chronicles that God had blessed him. He was this engineer king. Even the Siloam Tunnel archaeologists have found inscriptions of Hezekiah's name as they dig under Jerusalem. There is still things standing where Hezekiah did his projects. It's amazing. I'm sure he was just excited to show off his inventions. If you're an engineer, some of you are, you like to show off your inventions, don't you? I've talked with engineers before. There's a certain type, right? Come, let me show you my workshop. You've got to see this. That's kind of what Hezekiah was doing. But he was responding. He was responding to this flattery, and he was getting sucked in. And Isaiah held up a mirror to the foolishness of the king. He said, just what have you done? What were you thinking? And here's the thing. Pride needs to have a mirror held up to it so we can see how foolish we're being. Every once in a while, we need somebody to ask us, what are you doing? Why are you doing it? We need someone who's close to us, who has the keys and has the authority to hold up that mirror. And for a lot of you, it's your spouse. They ought to have the authority and they ought to have the entrance to come to you and say, excuse me, why are you doing this? Are you falling into pride? A lot of you need to have an accountability partner, somebody who can ask you those hard questions and challenge you to being foolish because God will confront your pride and pride will bring disaster. You see this as it comes from verse 16. Isaiah said to Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord, behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and what your fathers have accumulated until this day shall be carried to Babylon, nothing shall be left, says the Lord. They shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget. They shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." Hear the word of the Lord, he says. The days are coming. There's a prediction when, he says, everything that you have will be carried away to this small country of Babylon. At the time, not a world power. The Assyrian Empire was dominant. Babylon was not dominant at the time. This is not easily predictable. In fact, in Habakkuk, if you know that book, Habakkuk tells us this, he actually gives a prophecy of this. In Habakkuk chapter 1 he says, look among the nations and watch, this is the Lord speaking, be utterly astounded for I will work a work in your days which you would not believe were told you I am raising up the Chaldeans. A bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. God says, I am raising up this nation, the Chaldeans. They're going to march around. They're going to take what's not theirs. And at the time, this would be seen as ridiculous. How could it possibly be that God would raise up the Babylonians? They're a small country. They're not as powerful as the Assyrians. Hezekiah could only see the Assyrians as the enemy, and his pride blinded him to the fact that it was Babylon who would take them into exile. They were the ones who would carry them away, and more than just things, they would carry away their sons and their daughters and make their sons to be eunuchs, cutting their line off. They would have no children. This is probably, as someone mentioned this morning to me, we talked about eunuchs and Daniel last week, this is probably speaking to that exact same thing. Notice this sentence of the judgment of God. And then I might ask myself, okay, what would someone like Hezekiah do when faced with this kind of sentence? Will he cry out to God in prayer like he did before? Will he plead with God for deliverance? Will he ask for mercy? Will he pray at all? Shockingly, his response is indicative of his selfishness. Look at verse 19. So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, the word of the Lord which you have spoken is good. For he said, will there not be peace and truth at least in my days? This, friends, is apathy at the news of disaster. It shocks me, still shocks me. As I read it again, prepared for this week, once again, I was shocked with his selfishness. His whole point is at least as long as I'm alive, everything will be okay. Everything will fall apart when my kids come, but as long as I'm alive, that's all that matters. Notice this parallel structure between these two. In the first story, God comes and he's sick. That's the inciting incident. In the second story, the people come from Babylon. In both, there is a word that comes from Isaiah. In the first, it's that you're going to die. Then there's a prayer, and he says, okay, you'll recover. In the second story, he says, there is exile that will take your people away. Notice the third movement. How does Hezekiah respond? In the first time, he responds by praying to God, and God answers, and God delays his death. But notice how things change in the second story. When he finds himself physically strong and lifted up in pride, he shrugs it off and is apathetic. This is an indictment on his apathy, on his selfishness, and his failure. He resigned, he gave up, he didn't ask God for mercy, and this is an astonishing failure to me. In fact, this to me is something that hurts and that pokes to the, or that points to his weakness and his failure. There's something about this sin of old age that strikes me as different from the sin of foolish youth. Because he's lived a long life. He's not being deceived by foolishness. He knows better. Yet he sins in an astonishing way. His heart drifts away from God. The fervor that pled with God for life is gone. It's absent. It's replaced by apathy towards his circumstances. He asks for nothing. He gives up. And in this time of physical strength, he makes a grave error. He leans on his own understanding. And this is what we remember him by. There's a great theologian and author named D.A. Carson, and he's well known among evangelical circles. He wrote a book called How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil. A friend of mine shared this this week on social media, and I couldn't believe it. It was perfectly fitting with this story, and so I figured I would quote it to you. This is from D.A. Carson. He says, but I remember the fate of King Hezekiah. When he was under the sentence of death, he begged the Lord for 15 more years and received the extra span. In the course of those 15 years, he blew his entire reputation for integrity in one incident prompted by foolish pride. Nor was his reputation alone at stake. The bearing his action had on the future of the nation was disastrous. That is why I decided there are worse things than dying. I would rather die than end up unfaithful to my wife. I would rather die than deny by a profligate life that which I have taught in my books. I would rather die than deny or disown the gospel. God knows there are many things in my past of which I am deeply ashamed. I would not want such shame to multiply and bring dishonor to Christ in years to come. There are worse things than dying." And I agree with that. And the shocking turn Hezekiah fails. In a moment of spiritual strength, He is indeed weak. What is true weakness and what is true strength? God often brings physical needs to show us our need for Him, and it's these moments when we face our mortality, when we can't hide anymore, when death comes, that's when we find out how much we truly need the Lord, and that's when we find out what we're truly made of. You have two choices today, success or failure, weakness or strength. You may look at strength and assume you've been successful. You look at your life, you say, look at me, I'm a very successful person. I am a strong person. You may be deceived today. God may humble you. On the other hand, you may look at your weakness. You may say, look, I'm just a failure. I'm a failure, but God measures things different than men do. Today I challenge you. people who are under the sound of my voice, please, embrace the strength of Jesus Christ in the midst of your weakness, because that's how you're saved, is by faith to embrace the strength of Christ in the moment of your weakness. You notice these verses, I put them at the bottom of your outline. You can read them along with me if you want, or you can look up on the screen. Notice how God describes our condition. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." That's you and me. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps a good man someone would dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, much more than, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if we were enemies, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." We are saved, friends, through the blood of Jesus Christ. And that comes to those who are needing it. to those who are weak, to those who are humbled, to those who say, I need a Savior. Jesus did not come to be a physician for the healthy, He came to be a doctor for the sick. I think about when we're without strength, that's when Christ came. If you were already strong, why would Christ come? If you already had it all together, why would Christ need to be here for you? You're strong enough, save yourself. Jesus came because we needed it. In fact, God demonstrates His love in saving us. And now having been saved, notice this last, we rejoice. We are saved by His life and we rejoice in Him. What is the Christian's response to being saved, to being weak and being saved? What's the Christian's response? It is rejoicing. We rejoice in God. Today, I'll challenge you in two areas. Number one, for the believer, I always want to challenge you, those of you who claim the name of Christ, those of you who walk with Jesus, those of you who have trusted Jesus as your Savior, who say, yes, if I died today, I know with 100% certainty I'd be in the presence of Almighty God, and I would be there in heaven forever with Him. If that is your standard, if you know that you have eternal life with God, let me challenge you, let me beg you, please, to remember your weakness and remember His strength. Don't ever be lifted up in your physical strength and like Hezekiah, get to a point in your foolishness where you embrace your strength and deny his. There's a pitfall for Christians who know better. It's a dangerous thing. You've been a Christian for 20 years, great. Are you starting to slip in your devotional life with God? Are you starting to not pray anymore? Are you allowing things in your life you would never have allowed 10 years ago, but now you are and you don't mind? Because you're strong, you can handle it. Friend, be wary, be very careful. Spiritual weakness comes when you're physically strong, often. But I also want to talk to those of you who don't know Christ yet, and I always mention this at the end of every one of my messages, and I really want you to think, have I ever in my life been humbled about my sin? Do I, have I ever had a moment where God's word has spoken to me and my sin has been ever before me and God's forgiveness has been presented to me and I have trusted in what Jesus has done for my life. Jesus offers salvation to all who come to him in faith. All. If you come to him in faith, you believe, you receive. God says he will give unto you eternal life. And you can know that you have eternal life. It's not something you have to worry about, or guess about, or think about, or imagine. It's given to those who come to Him, to as many as received Him. To them He gave the right to become children of God, even those who believe in His name. So today, friend, would you come to Christ in your weakness? Because when we are weak, He is strong. Father, we ask you today to please work in hearts. Lord, help us not to be lifted up in pride. I pray we'd see this as a warning but also as an encouragement. Lord, you're the great God and the great strength of our life, of whom shall we be afraid? But also, Lord, it's very easy for those of us who are strong to be lifted up in pride and to be carried away by detachment from your truth. Be deceived and fall in sin, Lord, protect us. But Lord, I pray especially today for those who don't yet know you, who have been lifted up in their pride, and they need to recognize their own humility today, and embrace, or recognize their own weakness today, embrace that weakness in their humility. And the Bible says, as we believe on you, you will save us. So may these folks who have not yet trusted you, trust you today, that today they would ask you to be their savior. and they would believe in you for eternal life, not anything they can accomplish, but in what you've already done on the cross and dying and rising from the dead. Lord, work in our hearts now as the piano plays. I pray we'd come before