Faithful to His Word

Word of God, faithful to the Word of God. I want you to see if you can find the commonality in these names that I'm going to call out. Jordan Peterson, Tony Robbins, James Clear, Zig Ziggler, Elon Musk, Jim Rohn, Seth Godin, Steve and Covey, Steve Harvey, probably won't take you long to figure out that they're all success coaches. And they tell people how to achieve prosperity and success in life. And maybe you don't subscribe to any of those that I just named, but if not, there's hundreds of thousands of books available right now that will tell you how to be successful. There's TED Talks, there's podcasts, there's YouTube videos, the resources are abounding that will tell you what you need. I skipped all of that, and I just asked my friend, Chet, not Chet, Chet, that has become a friend of many of you, and I asked Chet, I said, "Chet, what would it take for me to be successful?" And within seconds, Chet gave me these steps. Number one, choose a clear direction. Number two, build valuable skills. Number three, take action before you feel ready. Chet said confidence usually comes after taking risks, not before. Number four, be consistent. Chet said small improvements are repeated for years, be it occasional burst of motivation. Number five, learn from fail your quickly. Chet said, "Don't ask, why did I fail, only ask, what does this teach me about what to do differently?" Number six, choose your environment carefully. Your friend's habits, workplaces, and information, diet, quietly shape your behavior. Number seven, protect your health and energy, sleep and exercise and relationships and mental clarity aren't distractions from success, they're infrastructure for it. Number eight, I think, be trustworthy, reliability, honesty, and treating people well, compound into opportunities that talent alone cannot create. Number nine, play the long game.

Most meaningful success looks slow while it's happening and obvious in retrospect. And then my friend, Chet said, "If I had to reduce independence, it would be this. Pick something worthwhile, get really good at it, keep showing up, and stay in the game long enough for your efforts to compound." Now, I agree with Chet's advice, nothing wrong with that. But it's interesting in my study and in my research about what it looks like to be someone who's successful, I could not find one YouTube video. I couldn't find one TED Talk, I could not find one single book on Amazon, I couldn't even find a podcast about one of the greatest success coaches ever. But I did find this written about him in all that he did in the service of the temple of God. In his efforts to follow God's laws and commands, Hezekiah sought his God wholeheartedly. Now, what's this? As a result, he was very successful. Second King, chapter 18, if you're there in your Bible or on your device, would you stand as we read a few verses from that chapter, beginning in verse 1. Second King's chapter 18, beginning in verse 1, it says, "As Hezekiah, son of A, has began to rule over Judah in the third year of King Hoshayah's reign in Israel. He was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem 29 years. His mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. He did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight, just as His ancestor David." ashra poles. He broke up the bronze serpent, and Moses had made because the people of Israel had begun, or had been offering sacrifices to it. The bronze serpent was called nahustah. Verse 5 has a guy trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah either before or after his time. He remained faithful to the Lord in everything. And he carefully obeyed all the commands the Lord had given Moses. So the Lord was with him, and Hezekiah was successful in everything. Everybody say everything. In everything that he did. What a great epitaph. That would be for any of us. Verse 6 and 7, "He remained faithful to the Lord in everything." Can you imagine if that was on your tombstone? What an incredible bio that would be for any of us. That we remain faithful to the Lord in everything,

and that we carefully obeyed all the commands the Lord had given Moses. So the Lord was with him in Hezekiah. Substitute your name was successful in everything that he did. How amazing it would be if the world said that about us. That's why I want to talk to you today about what it looks like to be faithful to his word. Let's make some declarations before you see to this morning. Everybody together. You guys, some of you stayed up too late watching college football. I just know. I know you did. I hope you repented during communion. Here we go. Let's make some declarations together. Everybody together. Ready? Go. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God. This word is life to my body and health to my bones. I will be a doer of the word and not a hearer only, and I am confident of this, that he who has begun a good work in me will complete it in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated, Church. Listen, here's a problem that I've identified, not just recently before a long time and assisted our shortened attention spans, combined with our addiction to excitement, often results in a substitution of man's plan over God's plan. Let's say that again. Our shortened attention spans, and they're shorter than they've ever been in all of history, combined with our addiction to excitement, often results in a substitution of man's plan for God's plan. Success and faithfulness can be summed up in one phrase, I believe, in the phrases is, long obedience in the same direction, long obedience in the same direction, obedience to what? Obedience to the Word of God, and long direction, long obedience in the same direction, what direction? Moving towards God and towards the things of God, consistently in our lives day after day after day, obeying the Word of God, long obedience to the Word of God, and moving in the direction of the things of God, regardless of what jumps into your pathway, regardless of what tries to hinder your progress, whether it be that you got fired from your job, or you walked through a divorce, or maybe it was a bad diagnosis, or maybe it was a financial hardship, whatever it is that that thing doesn't divert you from moving in the direction of the things of God. That right there really is success, long obedience to the Word of God, moving consistently for your life in the direction of the things of God, the holiness of God. Now when we look at Hezekiah's life, and today is more of a character study as we're journeying through the Old Testament than it is an exegetical word, but as we look at Hezekiah's life, we discover several things about Him. First of all, 25 years old, He becomes the king of Judah, and the Bible says, he cleanses and reopens the temple because as we know,

the history of Judah and Israel is up and down. They're serving God, they're wholeheartedly following him and then a new king comes into power and they begin to adopt these pagan practices. They're worshiping false gods. They're participating in sexual immorality and all these other kinds of things and then the temple doesn't become a place of priority and then a new king comes into rain and then they kind of recalibrate the people back to the things of God over and over. We find that as you read through the Old Testament and we've brought that out in our study this year that that's the pattern. That's what often happens and that's the condition of Judah when Hezekiah became the king and so He reopens the temple and He cleanses the temple because they had all of these false idols in the temple of God. Hezekiah reads Judah of its idolatry and he destroys the high places. And then we read in verse four, let me read it again. He broke up the bronze servant that Moses had made because the people of Israel had been offering sacrifices to it earlier in the year when we were in the book of numbers. I talked about this but to understand the context of verse four, we have to go back 900 years all the way back to numbers chapter 21. And what we find there in numbers chapter 21 is that the people, the Israelites had begun to murmur

and complain against their leadership, against Moses and Aaron and against God. They were upset that Moses had brought them out and now they're in the wilderness and so they just begin to complain and murmur and the result of that was, as you go back and read, as that God allows this outbreak of poisonous snakes and many people are bitten and many people died. Now, true to the compassion and the character of God, we face the judgment of God. We know that, that if we rebel against this word, if we go our own way, there will be consequences. So we face the consequences of sin, we face the judgment of God, but true to the compassion and character of God, God always provides a way for restoration. Anybody thankful for that? That when we've blown it and all of us have, that when we've blown it, that it doesn't negate us from the consequences or the discipline of God, but God comes right along and he provides a way for us to be restored. We ought to be grateful for that. That's exactly what he did for the Israelites. He allows us to outbreak of poisonous snakes, but then notice in Numbers chapter 21 verse eight, nine, we read this, then the Lord told him, make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole.

All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it. Interesting. So Moses made a snake out of a bronze and he attached it to a pole and then anyone who was bitten by snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed. Now, here's what we understand. God made a way for them to be restored and for them to be healed. What we don't understand is that it was an unconventional way and we're not given an explanation of why God chose to do it that way. Fashion of bronze serpent, hold it up on a pole and all people have to do is look at it. We don't know why God chose that way. God could have said, hey, I want to give you a concoction of dates and of mud and of pomegranate juice. And if you'll take that and apply it to the snake bite, they'll be healed. God could have done it that way, but he didn't choose to do that. He chose this other way. We're not always going to understand how God moves or why God moves certain ways. Listen, I've been in this a long time. I've served God for a long, long time. And there's so many things, so many things I don't understand, so many things I don't have answers to.

So many people that God has used that if it were up to me, I would have said, there's no way that that person could ever be used by God. So many... way or even in a particular place. That's not up to us. So God says, Moses, here's the remedy, fashion of bronze serpent, hold it up, and if people just look at it, they're going to be healed. 900 years before what we just read in our text in verse 4 of chapter 18. But what happens is, now 900 years later, people have taken that vehicle of the healing power of God and they've made it an idol. And 900 years later, they're still worshiping that thing, that bronze serpent, that had been preserved as a part of their history, but yet people are still worshiping that thing. And Hezekiah recognizes and realizes they are fixated on an object and not on the one who brought His healing power to them. Right? And so many times, we can do the same thing, right? In our own lives, we can get fixated on a particular person. God moves through a particular pastor or preacher or evangelist or somebody that you hear on a podcast and God's moving and it's obvious that the hand of God is on that person. But sometimes there comes a season where God doesn't move through that same person the same way for the rest of eternity. But what do we do? We want to make an idol out of them. We want to say because God moved that way at a certain time through that certain person. I'm expecting Him to do it again and God's moved on to something else or somebody else. And we have to be so careful that we don't do exactly what the Israelites did. And we don't make things an idol in our lives. In Hezekiah, I had the courage, the courage to destroy some sacred things. And I say sacred in air quotes.

It was sacred at one time. It wasn't sacred now. It was just a relic of how God had moved. Now let me tell you, if you want to be faithful to God, you've got to have the courage in your own life to destroy some sacred cows. And let me tell you, when you do that, you've got some family members who are not going to understand. They're not going to like it. They're not going to understand why you had the audacity to leave the family church where for generations people have been going to the same church and you realize at some point there is more than this. And you can still hear that sacred cow mooing because your family members want to remind you how dare you leave the family church. Anybody know what I'm talking about? So there might be some sacred cows in your life. And what faithfulness and success looks like is that you have the courage to kill those sacred cows. That's what Hezekiah did. Not only that, but Hezekiah, it's noted in Scripture, he built a 1,750-foot underground aqueduct so that any time Jerusalem would come under siege, they could always be assured that water would reach the city. The great architectural accomplishment on His part. He also reunited Israel and Judah in a massive Passover celebration there in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem came under siege by Assyria in 701 B.C. His Hezekiah refused to surrender. Instead, He put His trust in God and His Hezekiah encourages the people to stay in faith. And He says this in 2 Chronicles 32 verse 7 and 8, "Be strong and courageous." Don't be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria or His mighty army. For there is a power far greater on our side. He may have a great army, but they are merely men.

We have the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles for us. Hezekiah's words greatly encourage the people. magnified himself in your circumstances. Made himself look so much more powerful and so much bigger than he really is. And can I just remind you that the size of the army of the enemy is still no match for the armies of heaven. And you need to be encouraged today. You need to stay in faith today. You don't need to allow the enemy to intimidate you because of his mockery or because of the size of his army or because of what he's done in the past. You need to stay in faith and trust that we have the Lord our God on our side to find our battles for us. Now when Hezekiah encourages the people with those words, all of a sudden the Bible says, "Sonakarib, the king of Assyria, begins to mock the people. He begins to mock the king Hezekiah. He begins to mock God and he vows to destroy them. But look at what we read, 2 Chronicles, chapter 32, verse 20 and 21. Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, you see they were contemporaries. Hezekiah was the king during the time that Isaiah was a prophet in the land. It says that the king and the prophet cried out in prayer to God in heaven. Watch. And the Lord sent an angel who destroyed the Assyrian army with all its commanders and officers. So Sonakarib was forced to return home in disgrace to his own land. Stay in faith, people of God. That's what it means to be successful. That's what it means to be faithful even when circumstances are screaming loudly. Even when the enemy is mocking and saying, "This time you're going down. This time you will not recover. This time I'm going to wipe you out." You stay in faith and trust that our God is bigger than the threats or the taunts or the size of the army of the enemy. Somebody ought to say amen this morning. Listen, being faithful to the Word of God, I cannot just remind you of this. If you're faithful to the Word of God, you're being faithful to the most supernatural book of all time. You're being faithful to 66 books that were authored by 40 different authors over a period of 1600 years in three different languages, on three different continents. And yet still unto the unction and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, even though they're spread out over three continents, even though it's spread out over a 1600 year period, that God uses these vehicles, these men who wrote the Word of God, uses them to synchronize a beautiful story that is consistent across all 66 books of the Bible. The best-selling book of all time, somewhere between five and seven billion copies that have been printed, translated

into 700 different languages. We're talking about being faithful to not just some self-help book, not being faithful to some podcast, being faithful to the supernatural Word of God. Now listen, I understand that everybody has their own definition of success. We pick and choose people that we're going to emulate or that we consider to be successful in some measure, and your definition of success might be tied to some business, a human, or success, or maybe it's tied to wealth and possessions. You emulate somebody who's really made it. I mean they're really wealthy. They just bought a brand new Lamborghini and so you're emulating them because that's your picture or your definition of success. Maybe for you, it's longevity and marriage. Maybe it's the number of TikTok followers or YouTube subscribers that somebody has. Maybe it's your physical appearance. Your whole definition of success depends on how you look physically. Maybe it's about how many good deeds that you've done. We've all seen over the course of time the danger of anchoring our lives to some political system. We've all experienced the danger of what it means to anchor our lives to the economy or to a pastor or to some other leader. I'm talking about anchoring your life to two things that never change, the man Jesus and the Word of God. This book has understood every test of time. So many attacks that are still going on today and yet the Word of God stands true and stands for Isaiah writes this in Isaiah 26 verse 3 and 4, chapter 7 and 8, and we're about to close. It says, "You will keep in perfect peace, all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you, trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal rock, but for those who are righteous, the way is not steep and rough. You are God who does what is right and you smooth out the path ahead of them, Lord we show our trust in you by obeying your laws. Our heart's desire is to glorify your name." It's been an interesting week. Three days ago marked the one-year anniversary of the man who stood fiercely for the truth of the Word of God who was unjustly assassinated in front of the world, Charlie Kirk. Two days ago marked the 25-year anniversary of a day that those who were alive will never

forget. Those that were alive old enough to remember, it's interesting because a third of the people in America right now were born after 9/11, a third of the people. It's not mandatory that it's taught in school, a lot of our young people don't. They don't understand. All that went on that day, but those of you who are old enough to remember, if I ask any of you, you could take me to the exact spot where you were when it happened and what you were doing, sitting at your cubicle, driving down the road, you could take me to that spot right now. Why? That event, 9/11, 2001, is our Pearl Harbor of our day, significant. But listen, both of those things, one that happened a year ago, the one-year anniversary just three days ago, the other that happened 25 years ago that we remembered two days ago. Both of those things are stark reminders of the brevity of life and of the intolerance for truth and the assault on the Word of God in our culture. So vital that we understand how fragile our nation is, how fragile life really is, how vulnerable we can be, and how vitally important it is that we put our trust in God and in His Word. Why? Why have we gone to great lengths to try to get you in the Word of God this year to give you a ready-made plan that in two years you'll read the Bible cover to cover. It's not because we're trying to just fill up your schedule, fill up your calendar. It's because more than ever, more than ever, it's so important that we know what the Word of God says and that we stand firm on the Word of God, that we are faithful to the Word of God. Because the guy has 29-year reign and the success that he experienced should challenge us to be faithful to the Word of God and really his success has summed up in just a few verses. We read it right in the beginning in our text, 2 Kings 18, verse 6 and 7. I'm going to read it again, then we're going to pray. He remained faithful to the Lord in everything and he carefully obeyed all the commands,

all the commands that the Lord had given Moses, so the Lord was with him and Hezekiah was successful in everything that he did. Long obedience in the same direction, obeying the Word of God without compromise and moving towards God and towards the things of God, regardless of what comes in your pathway.