A Sickness, a Sundial, and a Swelled Head

We're going to continue our study in Isaiah this morning, Isaiah chapters 38 and 39. There's an old legend that tells a story of a merchant in Baghdad who one day sent his servant to the market to run an errand.

Before very long, the servant came back and he was white and trembling and in great agitation he said to his master, "Down in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned around I saw it was death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, gesture.

Master, I'm terrified. Please lend me your fastest horse for I must hasten away to avoid her. I will ride to Samara and there I will hide and death will not find me." The merchant granted his request and the servant galloped away in great haste. Later the merchant went down to the marketplace and saw death standing in the crowd. He went over to her and asked, "Why did you frighten my servant this morning? Why did you make a threatening gesture?" "That was not a threatening gesture," death said. "Frankly, it was I who was startled. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad for I have an appointment with him tonight in Samara."

Today we have a story of a man who had an appointment with death. And you know, we all have that appointment at one time or another. It's coming for all of us. And in this story today, Hezekiah's appointment with death was postponed.

But so that's what we'd like to think about a little bit, the story of Hezekiah, the continuation of what we talked about last time. The title this morning is "A Sickness, a Sundial, and a Swollen Head."

You know, Hezekiah at this at the time of this story was about 39 years old. So he was in the prime of his life. And Isaiah comes to him and says, "Set your house in order because you're going to die." And Hezekiah had a sickness. And the thing that from what we can tell from the timeline is remember the last time we talked about how the Sennacherib was laying siege against Jerusalem and this whole thing with Assyrians and whatever. At the very same time that this was going on, Hezekiah had a sickness that was leading to it was he was going to die from it.

And so Hezekiah really was an amazing, amazing person. And I want to read chapter 38 in Isaiah verses 1 through 8. "In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, went to him and said to him, 'Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order for you shall die and not live.' Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the Lord and said, '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. And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah saying, 'Go and tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer.

I have seen your tears. Surely I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you in this city from the hand of the king of Assyria and I will defend this city. And this is a sign to you from the Lord that the Lord will do this thing which he has spoken. Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz ten degrees backward.' So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down.

And then for a little more context, turn to 2 Kings chapter 20.

2 Kings chapter 20 verses 1 through 11. "In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, went to him and said to him, 'Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order for you shall die and not live.' Then he turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the Lord saying, 'Remember now, O Lord, I pray thee how I pray how I have walked before you in truth and with a loyal heart and have done what was good in your sight.' And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And it happened before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court that the word of the Lord came to him saying, 'Return 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 fifteen years and I will deliver you in this city from the hand of the king of Assyria and I will defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.' Then Isaiah said, 'Take a lump of figs.' So they took and laid it on the boil and he recovered. And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, 'What is the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day?' Then Isaiah said, 'This is the 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, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.' So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.'" I guess the first thing that really stands out to me, at home on our wall we have a motto that says, "Prayer changes things." It's a simple statement. And sometimes I look up there and I see that and I think about it. You know, how often do we sort of get into a rut where we think, "Well, God knows everything anyway.

He has everything's in his control." And at least I myself sometimes catch myself feeling, "Well, does it really make a difference? Does it make a difference when I pray?" But Hezekiah's response here when he was faced with this I mean, he was faced we see that his response in chapter 37 verse 21, it says that it says that because God heard his prayer, he was going to take care of the problem of the Assyrians. And in this case, when he was sick, it seems like his instant response was to go to God in prayer.

And so the first point I want to make is that prayer works. James 5:6 says, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." So do we really believe that prayer can move the hand of God? There's a little article I read by someone named James Gould and to me it was a challenge and I just want you to think about this. What really moves the hand of God? This important question has been asked throughout the ages with a great variety of responses. Ponder it for a while. I'm sure there are many right answers to the question. Faith is a correct one for sure. Purity, compassion, and integrity would be other good answers to this simple yet profound question.

But let me cast light for a moment on one strategic quality the Lord looks for: desire. Webster's defines the noun form of desire as a wish or craving, a request, anything desired. The off-quoted teaching of Jesus on the subject of faith states, "Therefore I say unto you, what thingssoever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them." And that's in Mark 11:24. What do you desire? What is your passion? What do you want so badly that you can hardly live without it? James 4:2 says, "You do not have because you do not ask." This verse could easily be rendered, "Ye ask for nothing because ye desire nothing." What you want motivates you.

Do you have a deep craving within you that results in a passionate pursuit? Do you want more of God? Do you hunger to see Him move in the earth? Desire is the beginning of a desperate prayer of the heart. And we see that in Hezekiah's life. Hezekiah had the same desires that we all have. He wanted to live.

And he felt like he was in the prime of his life and he is just doing whatever, trying to follow God and all of a sudden this hits him. And so he turns to God and he turns his face to the wall. And you know, that's a sign. Remember Ahab did that out of passion as well. It was the wrong kind of passion. He turned his face to the wall because he was pouting and he was upset because he couldn't get what he wants. But we see Hezekiah turn his face toward the wall and with a passion cried out to God for healing.

Maybe we need to back up a bit and ask another simple yet profound question: What is prayer? Ultimately, prayer is nothing more than desire expressed to God. One proper definition of intercession is the act of making a request to a superior. So we could say that prayer is the act of expressing a deep-seated yearning to a superior God for things to change. You have heard people say, "I'm so desperate I'll do anything." Well, how about reaching the end of ourselves to the point that we intercede as if there's no other option left?

I'm convinced, and this is still reading from this article, that the last day's battle is a battle of passions. The world flaunts her lustful passions daily across the stage of life full-blown with no shame. But the church has often been anemic in this arena. It is time for the bride of Christ to be filled with passion for her bridegroom and perform extravagant displays of lavish love. What a better place to exhibit boundless zeal and holy passion than in the place of prayer? Prayer is the bridal chamber of intimacy with our Master.

And basically what he's saying is that, you know, for the most part we're a little weak in our passions. We get passionate about lots of things. But are our prayers fervent? Consider the words of E.M. Bounds: "Prayers must be red hot. It is the fervent prayer that is effective. It takes fire to make prayers go. Warmth of soul creates an atmosphere favorable to prayer. By flame, prayer ascends to heaven, the vital ingredient in what we call prayer passion, the characteristic necessary to fan desire into a full flame." Has your heart ever been bursting with love for the Lord Jesus so much that words cannot express what is inside you? Sometimes when I am overwhelmed by the loveliness of His great presence, words seem inadequate.

When I am captivated by the qualities of this man, Christ Jesus, my heart aches and yearns with the desire to know Him and to embrace His ways. This is when prayer passion is in full bloom. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." But sometimes love speaks a strange language. First and foremost, it's a language of the heart.

And that sort of brings us to the second part of what Hezekiah it says, God says, "I've seen your prayers and I've seen your tears." So I think I hear you pondering another question. Do you mean to say there are prayers of passion that go beyond the articulation of words? Yes. Let's consider the power of compassionate weeping.

"Several Salvation Army officers in the last century, S. General Booth, 'How can we save the lost?' Booth stated simply, 'Try tears.'" Today's church growth seminars are held across the nation. Techniques and methodologies are discussed at great length on how we can have successful growing churches. Cookie cutters can be passed out too. But a heart for God is forged only through the crucible of the cross. Jeremiah 9:1 says, "Oh, that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people."

Bernard of Clairvaux said, "The tears of penitence are the wine of angels." David said, "Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress. My eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief. I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail while I wait for my God."

And Paul said, "For three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears." And he also says in 2 Corinthians, "I wrote to you with many tears." I guess the point that it was convicting to me is Hezekiah's response was fervent prayer and tears.

And it moved God's heart. It moved the hand of God. It says Isaiah wasn't even out of the court, out of the palace yet when he got this message that said, "Turn around, go in and tell... go in and tell Hezekiah, 'Your prayer's been heard. I've seen your tears. I've heard your prayer.'" And so I guess I was just... I want to encourage us, you know, maybe the fervency is missing in our prayers. I know for myself that's a very real temptation is sort of to go along and we make these mechanical prayers. But are we on fire?

Are we passionate? And you know, our prayers will follow the passions of our life. If the passions of our life are distractions and things, our prayers are going to be that way too. I'd like to read Hezekiah's prayer in verses 10 through 20. This is the thing that he said.

And the first few verses are a lament. And we know David did that. It sounds like maybe in some ways he's complaining. But he was basically opening his heart out to God. He said, "I said, 'In the prime of my life I shall go to the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the remainder of my years.'" Remember, he's only 39 years old.

He's in the prime. "I said, 'I shall not see y'all, the Lord and the land of the living. I shall observe man no more among the inhabitants of the world. My lifespan is gone, taken from me like a shepherd's tent.'" You know, the shepherds went out, they were nomads, they pitched their tent and then in a short time they picked it up and it's all gone. "I have cut off my life like a weaver. He cuts me off from the loom." It's like, here there's this beautiful tapestry being worn and prematurely the weaver comes and he cuts it off the loom and it's over. "From day until night you make an end of me. I have considered until morning like a lion, so he breaks all my bones.

From day until night you make an end of me. Like a crane or a swallow so I chattered. I mourn like a dove. My eyes fail from looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed. Undertake for me." And then the tone changes, "What shall I say? He has both spoken for me and He Himself has done it. I shall walk carefully all my years in the bitterness of my soul. O Lord, by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit. So You will restore me and make me live. Indeed, it was for my own peace that I had great bitterness. But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption.

For You have cast all my sins behind Your back. For Sheol cannot thank You, death cannot praise You. Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth. The living, the living man, he shall praise You as I do this day. The Father shall make known Your truth to the children. The Lord was ready to save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord." Now... and then it says that Isaiah said to put a lump of figs and put it on the boil and he's going to recover.

Prayer changes things and I just want to encourage us to be fervent. Fervent in prayer, fervent in spirit, and be passionate. So that's the first thing I want to note here is that prayer works. Now just for a little bit here I'd like to talk about the sundial in this sign. Because here at the end of chapter 38 Hezekiah said, "What's the sign?" And we had a little more context in Kings there where he says, "Do you want the shadow to go down or backwards?" And Hezekiah said, "Well, we all know that the shadow continues to go down. Let the shadow come back."

And there's been much speculation, many theories put forth about, you know, what all this was. And in about 1970 there was an article that came out that supposedly was flouted all over the place. It was even made the newspapers that NASA proved that this all happened. Because remember the story of Joshua when he was out in battle and God said the sun stayed up there for the most part of a day while they fought this battle. But... so the story goes something like this: that the scientists at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center were bewildered to discover that a day was somehow missing in history. They had been running computer calculations on future and past positions of the sun, moon, and planets.

And the computer locked up at one point indicating that it could not continue its calculations because there was a day missing. Someone on the team of scientists remembered the Bible story about Joshua's long day from the book of Joshua and wonders if it may provide an explanation of this amazing find. A Bible was brought out and the story is examined. But the Joshua story would allegedly only account for 23 hours and 20 minutes of the missing day. Then the religious member of the team remembers the Bible story about the sundial and Hezekiah's time and the retreat of the shadow, the sun backward 10 degrees, as recorded in the book of 2 Kings. They calculate this to represent 40 minutes of time and thus the scientists are amazed that the Bible has explained the full 24-hour problem that they had encountered.

The problem was that it's all made up. It's not true. And I guess just as a warning, you read these articles, you read these stories and when you want something to be true, it's easy to grab or latch onto that.

The interesting part is the story is found clear back in the 1800s. There's another book and it... the same three things are in it, the same components: the day, the 23 hours and 20 minutes, and then the missing 40 minutes. Except this time it was scientists that were looking at the stars and the constellations or whatever. There was a fellow that wrote an article clear back in the 1800s. So as technology and things advance, people take this story and add onto it. And the fellow that wrote this in 1970 still declares it's true. But people have gone to him and asked him, you know, "What... where's your documentation?" And he says, "Well, I misplaced it.

I don't have it," and so on. Things like that actually in the long run hurt the case and actually do a disservice. So what did go on here? All kinds of theories, all kinds of... I mean, obviously it was a miracle. It was a miracle of God. Some people say the earth tilted on its axis, which changed the angle of the sun. Some people actually believe that the earth reversed its rotation.

I find that because God creates an orderly universe, I find that a little bit hard to think about. But I want to read a verse in Revelation 21.

I stumbled across... as I was studying this, I found... I guess this is what... where I landed on the whole thing. This is at least a possibility. Revelation 21, verses 22 and 23. This is the New Jerusalem. "But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light." I believe... what does it take to make a shadow retreat? A brighter light, right?

I believe that Shekinah, glory of God, overtook the power of the sun. I mean, I think it's possible that that would happen. And we had... we have many examples of that in the Scripture. We have the pillar of fire that guided the children of Israel and the cloud by day. We have the Shekinah glory that settled over the mercy seat.

The mount of transfiguration, a bright, brilliant light. And then we had it this morning in our lesson, Apostle Paul, this brilliant light from heaven. And to make a shadow retreat all we need is a bright light. And you know, that could even explain the whole thing in Joshua. If there's no need of a sun in heaven, surely He can be that sun for the day. Anyhow, that's one theory. I like that... I just like that. It's a simple... that's still... it's a simple thing that still proclaims the majesty and glory of God.

So for whatever that's worth. But we know that it was a miraculous thing, the sundial... the shadow went backwards. And it was apparently from what we... from what we read later, it was a big enough deal that people around had heard it. Well, even if it was a bright light that overpowered the sun for a while in a local area, that would have certainly gotten the attention of people who were paying attention.

So God is able to do His work and prayer works. And now I want to look at the second point, the second half of this, which is pride hurts. I want to read chapter 39.

"At that time Merodach-Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah. For he had heard that he had been sick and had recovered. And Hezekiah was pleased with them and showed them the house of his treasures, the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory, all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet went to king Hezekiah and said to him, 'What did these men say and from where did they come to you?' So Hezekiah said, 'They came to me from a far country, from Babylon.' And he said, 'What have they seen in your house?'

So Hezekiah answered, 'They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.' Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, 'Hear the words of the Lord of hosts: 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. And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget, and they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.' So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, 'The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good. For he said, 'At least there will be peace and truth in my days.'" Now you read that and you say, "Well, what in the world is going on here?

What happened? Why... why has... did Hezekiah just open up his house to Babylon?" And for... again, for more context I'd like you to turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 32. And it explains here why...

what was going on here.

Starting at verse 24. "In those days Hezekiah..." and from what I understand the accounts in Kings and Isaiah are sort of the... sort of what you see. And then Chronicles sort of goes in behind the scenes and kind of tells you what was really happening. "In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death and he prayed to the Lord and he spoke to him and gave him a sign."

But this is what it says, "But Hezekiah did not repay according to the favor shown him, for his heart was lifted up. Therefore wrath was looming over him and over Judah and Jerusalem. Then Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah had very great riches and honor and he made himself treasures for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of desirable items, storehouses for the harvest of grain, wine, and oil, and 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. However, regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land..." and pay attention to this: "God withdrew from him in order to test him, that he might know all that was in his heart."

So what happened here? And I said pride hurts. And you know, pride is such a sneaky thing.

Satan. Remember the last time I said, you know, sometimes Satan comes at us when we're the most successful, when we feel like things are going well and that, you know, I'm following God, I'm obeying, and things are going well. And it's just at that point where Satan comes in and tries to get us off guard.

And you know, sometimes I think about it, it is hard to understand sometimes. So the Bible commands us to, whatever we do, do it with our might.

We strive for excellence. We want to do as good as we can do. So how do we... how do we then escape the inevitable temptation that comes along from that? So if we strive for excellent, we put our heart into it and it turns out successfully. Very, very easily that quickly changes to something that's ugly.

At least this is something that I feel sometimes in my own heart. So how do we know what is pride? How do we learn to recognize it? What's our... what are some of the things that we can do to recognize it and fight against it?

You know, what... just what is pride? I mean, did you ever stop and try to just define it? I went to the dictionary and I was kind of disappointed by the answer. It was kind of pithy, I thought. I mean, just, you know... and I really like... I think the best definition I could find, which is in Romans 12, verse 3.

It's a very familiar verse, but I'm going to read it this... here.

"For I say through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." If you want to boil it down, pride is simply thinking more of ourselves than we should. Taking credit for things that we should not. Jonathan Edwards sort of famously had seven signs of pride.

And I'm just going to... I'm not going to dig into each one of these. Each one of these could be a lesson of itself. But this is what Jonathan Edwards says, sort of a... something that we can maybe think about as far as a sign of pride. Number one, fault finding.

Number two, a harsh spirit.

Number three, superficiality. That means we're concerned about what people see and we're very surface oriented. Defensiveness, a presumption before God, desperation for attention, and neglecting others. And that's a pretty... that's a pretty sobering list when you think about it.

Something that I think... that I know I struggle with a lot. Just, you know, what is in my heart? "Pride is a great imposter." Another essay that I came across by Marc Dehon says that, "Pride can swagger with self-importance one minute before writhing in self-contempt the next. Its closets are stuffed with masks of deception. We think we know what it is.

Our books of common language describe it as an exaggerated sense of self-importance. We've watched it pile, pain upon pain. But the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that it can walk unnoticed through the best and worst times of our life." And then he gives a list of things. And just think about how sneaky and how subtle pride can be. "Self-defeating pride. On a good day, it keeps us from thinking that we need to do anything differently. When trouble comes, we don't want people to think we're changing our ways just because we're in trouble.

Wounded pride. The pride that prompts us to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think can also fill us with self-contempt when we don't live up to our own expectations. Fearful pride. The ego that causes us to be overly competitive on some occasions can also keep us from trying at all in other situations. Sometimes pride makes us willing to win at the expense of others. Sometimes it causes us to avoid the embarrassment of possible failure." So pride can take both forms.

"Uninhibited pride. The pride that causes us to be meticulous with our appearance can also cause us not to care what others think about us at all.

Self-deceiving pride. The pride that can cause us to call attention to other people's mistakes can lead us to believe we don't have any reason to be critical of ourselves. Procrastinating pride. The arrogance that causes us to think we can change anytime we want can keep us from ever changing at all.

Uncaring pride. The conceit that allows us to be preoccupied with our own problems can also help us to be oblivious to the pain of others. Socking pride. The pride that keeps us from asking others for help can also cause us to sock when others are not there for us."

So we... we're too proud to ask for help, but then we also pity ourselves. That's a form of pride. "Self-introducing pride. Sometimes to admit pride seems fatal. At other times, saying we know we are proud is a way of saying we think we have something to be proud about.

Pious pride. The pride that causes us to be prayerlessness in our personal life can also prompt us to pray with crowd-pleasing eloquence in public settings." Jesus talked about that. "Make your prayers to be seen before men." What are we doing in our prayer closets? "Overly talkative pride. That survival instinct that prompts us to be silent about what is really happening in us can also cause us to dominate conversations and relationships when we don't want others asking questions.

Slacker pride. The self-sufficiency that drives workaholics to try to make themselves indispensable can also cause a lazy person to assume that he can be a slacker without consequence. Tearful pride. The conceit that causes us to disregard the feelings of others can also cause us to use tears to play on the emotions of others when we want something.

Quiet pride. The self-interest that causes us to parade our successes can also prompt us not to admit our failures. Contrite pride. The self-absorption that allows us to protect ourselves at others' expense can also prompt us to think we deserve forgiveness once we've admitted our wrongs. Pride isn't just an excessive opinion of ourselves that acts at the expense of others. Ironically, pride is the ultimate form of self-delusion. If it can't hit us with the right, it will come at us from the left. If our northern front is strong, it will hit us from the south. If we're reinforced on the ground, it will attack us from the air.

At least one lesson surfaces: when we understand the strategies of pride that feed on our own human nature, we have that many reasons to get on our knees. When we live unaware of pride's delusions, we have knees that won't bend.

Healthy humility may sound like a bitter pill, but the alternative is self-destruction. While pride is a sure way to create problems for ourselves and others, the opposite of pride leaves no regret. God Himself becomes our satisfaction. He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble."

I thought it was worthwhile reading that because... simply because of how I find, and I think probably all of us find pride to be such a sneaky thing. It just wants to permeate all areas of our life. And it was no different here for Hezekiah. Hezekiah had just come off of one of... some of the greatest successes. He was healed of a disease.

The Assyrians... God delivered them in a mighty way. But we see what happened here. It says that because of that, he received a lot of honor and a lot of glory. And he received a lot of... he became very wealthy. And that took his focus away from where it needed to be. And he found himself being... being swollen up. He had a swollen head lifted up in pride. And we know that because the Bible says that's what happened.

If we just had the passage here in Isaiah, we may have been left a little bit hanging. But God says specifically that he became lifted up in pride. And he didn't give God his due after all that God did for him.

You know, pride hurts. It's destructive. It distorts our judgment. And we see that happening here. So here comes along Babylon with a little flattery, a little... some nice words. And the first thing you know... I mean, Babylon became their enemy. But we invite Babylon in and we show him all of our treasures. Everything that we have. Become very naive because we become lifted up in pride. And pride distorts our judgments. And Isaiah gave us a thing... he said to Hezekiah, he said, "What have they seen in your house?" And you know, that's maybe a question that we should ask ourselves today.

What do people see in our homes, in our house?

What if Hezekiah had showed off the temple instead of his treasury? There's a man named Frank Barker and he published a monologue of what it might have been like. What if Hezekiah had said, "I am so to the Babylonians. I'm so glad you're here. Let me show you the temple. Let me show you where we worship the true God who created the world. He is not like the tribal gods or national gods. He's the creator of the world. His temple can't contain... this temple can't contain God. The universe can't contain Him. But He manifests His presence here in a unique way to show how He can be approached. That innermost part is the holiest of all, where in a unique way He manifests His presence over the Ark of the Covenant, which contains the Ten Commandments.

We don't keep these commandments as we should, but God has a way for us to be forgiven. Do you see this altar? We offer the blood of a lamb here, and then the high priest takes that lamb's blood in and covers our sin as he sprinkles it between the cherubim on top of the Ark once each year on the Day of Atonement. Do you see this? This is the Word of God, the God who created everything. He has revealed Himself through prophets. Would you like a copy? Would you like to tell me more?

Just think about it just a little bit. What would it have been like if that would have been Hezekiah's response? Instead, he shows them all his things that he has, the things he accomplished, his cattle and his beautiful house.

And so the question comes to us then: What do people see in our house? What are we promoting? What are we flaunting when people ask us? Are we... are we swayed more than we'd like to admit by the things of this world, the distractions? Has a sneaky sort of pride maybe distorted our judgment?

And so we sort of see that prayer and pride are connected. There's sort of this... sort of this chain or this circle. Our prayers are not... are hindered when we're full of pride. But when in humility we come to Him, then He hears us.

And the last point I'd like to think about is: Praise is powerful. So we have... we have prayer works, pride hurts, and praise is powerful. And I'd like to just end maybe with a little bit: How can we combat the pride in our lives?

And you know, what Elam said in Children's Meeting this morning, I think is probably one of the biggest assets, biggest things we have to fight against pride. And that is gratitude. And I know I've talked about this here before, but when you think about: If I truly have an attitude of gratitude, that means my perspective is where it needs to be.

Because when we're thankful to some... when we're thankful to God, that means we recognize that it's not me. That it's not something that I did myself. But that I'm looking to someone who's so much greater than I am. And it helps us keep our perspective where it needs to be.

And that's very important when it comes to fighting that sneaky pride that wants to come in. Who am I? And who is God? And where do I fit in this picture? And you know, Paul says in Philippians, he says, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, that each esteem others better than himself." Another thing we can do to combat pride is to put others ahead of ourself. And we're back to the same age-old problem: It's selfishness. It's pride and selfishness. It's all entwined like a cancer.

And so yes, we need to... we need to do everything that we do with all of our might. But we need to remember that every breath we take is a gift from God. We can of ourselves do nothing.

And that's the perspective that we need to keep in front of our minds at all times.

No matter what I do, even the discipline, everything that I do that makes things a success is a gift from God. And it comes from Him. And it's not of ourselves. And so just let's try to cultivate that spirit of thankfulness, gratitude, placing others ahead of ourselves.

Someone has said this: "Receive compliments, don't swallow them." Every good thing comes from above. So you know, if someone gives us a compliment, we can receive that, give the honor and glory to whom it belongs. But let's not take that in and ingest it and become like a pufferfish that blows itself up and it's spiny and it fills itself... and it's toxic. It's poisonous.

Let's not do that. The other thing we can do is ask God to humble us. And it says there in Chronicles that God withdrew from Hezekiah for a while. Why? In order to test him. To see what he was made of. And that's maybe a... when I thought about: Ask God to humble me? That's a scary... that's a scary proposition. Because I don't know what's... what's God going to bring into my life? Am I ready to pass the test?

The other thing we can do is avoid positions that cause pride. And you know, in 1 Timothy, there was a warning given to... to when it was talking about leadership, it says: "Do not give this position to a novice." What's the reason? Because it's very easy for that person to be lifted up in pride.

He's not saying that that's a bad position. He's simply saying... there I think what he's saying there is that there may be some things that you have to recognize that you cannot at this time do because you recognize what it's going to do to you. In other words, be aware that sometimes you have to say no to some things because you recognize the weakness in your own heart.

Avoid positions that cause pride.

And I'm sure we could think of many other things that we could think about. But I just want to, you know, let the warning... Here was Hezekiah, who I really think overall was a... was an outstanding man. And yet we see him getting tripped up. Now it does... the chronology here is a little difficult to figure out. I can't quite tell exactly when all this happened. It does seem like Hezekiah repented of his pride and turned away from that. But the last statement here does... his statement that at least it's not going to happen, this trouble is not going to happen in my time, it still lets me wonder a little bit: Did he get the message?

But to me, it's just a very solemn warning to myself. I was very convicted as I studied this, you know, where is pride at in my life?

Have I learned to recognize that?

You know, it's a shame that Manassah, who was Hezekiah's son, was born after the 15 years. Because it says that Manassah was 12 years old when he began to reign. So that would mean he would have been born. And so Manassah sort of came up through this time where maybe Hezekiah was struggling a little bit with this. And Manassah was known as the most evil king of all. So pride hurts.

Let you remember that. There's consequences and pride's hurtful. But praise is powerful. And we see that there in Hezekiah where he says: "I'm going to praise you. I'm going to praise you with music. I'm going to praise you with song."

So the question I guess I want to leave with us today is the question that Isaiah asked of Hezekiah. And he said: "What have they seen in your house?" And when it comes to our responses in the midst of trouble, are we... is our instantaneous response to cry out to God in fervent prayer?

A prayer that's hot, that has passion in it. What's he seen in our house? Does he see maybe us getting sidetracked with all the materialism and things that are around us and pride sort of rearing its ugly head?

Does he see that we live lives full of gratitude and praise and honor to God? That's the question this morning. And I trust that all of us... you know, I think it's... pride's something that Jesus talked a lot about. It's something that we battle, I think we'll probably battle for the rest of our lives as long as we're here on this earth. But I just want to challenge us all to... let's recognize the enemy for who it is. And let's... let's repent of that when we find it in our... we find ourselves in that. And let's remember to pray earnestly and without ceasing.

Does anyone have any comments?