7/8/12 - Hezekiah 5 - 2 Kings 19:35-36

OVERWHELMING

Overwhelmed by Life

            Life can be overwhelming at times, can’t it?  There are so many things that can happen; there are so many problems that can come up; and when they all arrive at once a person can feel completely overwhelmed.  I would imagine that almost everyone in this room (maybe with the exception of the really little children) knows exactly what I’m talking about!  There have been moments in your life when you did not know if you could stand up under it all!  And it probably happened for a variety of different reasons depending on who you are and what time of your life we’re talking about.  Maybe one of the reasons you felt so overwhelmed was a health issue or a family issue.  Maybe it was a problem with your income, overdue bills, or unexpected expenses.  Maybe it was a catastrophe, an accident, even a death.  Maybe it had to do with all of the extra responsibilities that had suddenly been thrown on your shoulders whether you were ready for them or not.  Maybe it had been building up for a number of years.  Maybe it all came crashing down in one day.  Maybe it’s reoccurring.  Maybe it’s something you’re dealing with right now.  In any case, life can be overwhelming at times… for everyone.  And we are all affected by it in different ways.

            Some of us are those who feel weighed down by it all.  It seems to press down on your shoulders and you feel as if you are struggling to keep your head above water as all of the problems and difficulties swirl around you.  And your mood gets a little darker and your mind gets a little cloudier and your energy just isn’t there anymore.  And it’s a little overwhelming.

            But then there are others of us who are affected in almost the opposite way: instead of feeling weighed down, you get worked up!  You get flustered, tense, wired.  You wake up in the middle of the night worrying about what’s going to happen tomorrow.  You can’t get your mind off of what’s going on during the day.  You can’t calm down, you can’t relax, you can’t even seem to catch your breath.  And it’s a little overwhelming.

            Whether you’re someone who gets weighed down or someone who gets riled up, someone who stresses out because you’re frantically trying to juggle all of the balls all at once or someone who gets depressed at how many of those balls have fallen to the ground already, everyone gets overwhelmed at times in life.  Even the strongest of Christians.

Overwhelmed by the Assyrians

            King Hezekiah was a strong Christian.  He was a man whom Scripture says “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.”  And we have seen examples of that the past four weeks.  But even this godly king was overwhelmed at times.  And maybe no more so than when King Sennacherib came pounding on the door.  King Sennacherib was the king of the Assyrians.  And at that time they ruled the known world.  They could do just about whatever they wanted to whomever they wanted.  In fact, when King Hoshea, the king of the northern land of Israel, rebelled against the Assyrians, the current Assyrian ruler brought his army over and completely annihilated the northern kingdom of Israel, sending the Lord’s people into exile.  That was ten out of the twelve tribes of Israel that the Assyrians just walked over!  And the two tribes of the land of Judah were next.  Hezekiah was king in Jerusalem when all of this was going on and there was nothing much he could do to stop it.  He had only a fraction of the fighting force that the king of Israel had at his disposal and they hadn’t even slowed the Assyrians down.  And by all accounts Sennacherib wasn’t the kindest of kings either.  He made those he conquered pay for their disobedience: he humiliated them, he mutilated the, he tortured them, he burned down their homes and ripped them away from their lands.  And now he was standing on the doorstep of Hezekiah’s kingdom, ready to do the same to him.  What was Hezekiah supposed to do?  What do you imagine was going through his mind?  Who wouldn’t be overwhelmed at a time like that?

            But you have heard the rest of the story already.  You know how it ends.  Should Hezekiah have been overwhelmed?  Should he have been anxious about the outcome?  Should he have worried at all?  “That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!  So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.”  The Lord struck down 185,000 soldiers with the snap of his fingers!  In the blink of an eye 185,000 thousand problems that Hezekiah had weighing down on him disappeared.  Sennacherib left and he never came back.  No war, no siege, no capture, no exile.  Not one sword was drawn on either side.  God took care of it - and he took care of it in a way that no one expected. 

Overwhelmed for No Reason

            And so I ask you again: should Hezekiah have felt overwhelmed?  The Lord had everything under control the entire time.  He knew what was coming.  He realized what was going to happen.  And he was powerful enough and loving enough to make it right.  Should Hezekiah have felt overwhelmed at any point?  Should you?

            When we are overwhelmed by anything in this life - no matter what it is - we are struggling with a serious lack of trust in our powerful and loving Lord.  At those particular times in our lives when we are weighed down or worked up, we are in that state partly because we are relying too much on ourselves.  And I say that from experience!  “I have to fix it.  I have to deal with it.  I have to find a way through it.  I have to manage it.  I have to overcome it…”  Instead of calmly saying “The Lord will fix it.  The Lord will deal with it.  The Lord will get me through it.  The Lord will manage it.  The Lord has already overcome it,” we are absorbed in ourselves.  As if we were in control.  As if it were up to us to figure out a way to make things right.  Are we that forgetful?  Or are we that bigheaded as to think that we are the be-all and end-all of what happens in this life?  Where are the Lord’s promises in all of that?  What about his power?  What about his love?  No wonder we get overwhelmed!  If we are relying on our own abilities to deal with the messes around us, of course we’re going to find ourselves way in over our heads!

Overwhelmed by Christ’s Love

            But it is at those times when we find ourselves way in over our heads when our loving Lord does an amazing thing: he reaches over and grabs all of the balls that we’re trying to juggle and the dozens that we’ve not managed to keep in the air at all, and he throws them deep into the tomb that he left empty.  And then he takes all of the weights off of our shoulders that have been burdening us for years and he hangs them on the nails of his cross.  And then he bends down and lifts us out of the water over which we could not keep our heads and dries us off in the waters of baptism.  And he leads us to sit down at his table where his body and blood are waiting for us; and in a very real way he calms our nerves; he eases our worries; he soothes our hearts.  He massages out all of the kinks and the knots with his forgiveness; he strengthens us with the powerful promises of his Word; he assures us with the guarantee of life forever with him.  This is what Christ’s love does.  And it’s all a little overwhelming, isn’t it?

            When we are in pain he points us to the pain he experienced in our place, making the physical problems we are going through seem like nothing more than scrapes and scratches.  When we are struggling with a family member he reminds us of the wrath he took from his own Father because of what we did and who we are, making our relationships on this earth seem trivial in comparison.  When we can’t seem to get around the corner, when we can’t seem to get out of a rut, when we can’t seem to get over a death, Jesus takes us to the place of his death - and then immediately leads us to the place of his resurrection.  He shows us what really matters, what is really important, what is really going to last.  And suddenly what we thought was so pressing isn’t anymore and what we thought was of such great magnitude is really only a blip on the radar.  Christ’s love is a little overwhelming, isn’t it?

Overwhelmed by God’s Power

            But then he takes you to places like the city walls of Jerusalem during the days of King Hezekiah to show you something different.  Because there he puts on display his absolute control over all of the enemies of his people as he wipes out 185,000 thousand warriors with a breath.  And then he takes you to a boat sailing on the waves of the Sea of Galilee and lets you listen in as he calms the storm with a stern command.  And then he leads you by the hand to stand with the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel and Isaiah as he gives them visions of the almighty strength and glory and majesty of your Lord and Savior.  God’s power is a little overwhelming, isn’t it?

            And then he promises you: “I will hold you in my powerful hand.  I will guard you with my powerful arm.  I will protect under my powerful wing.  No one, no one will be able to take you from me.  And nothing, nothing will be able to distract me from you.  I have taken care of it all.  And I will always take care of you.” 

            As your pastor and as a Christian who honestly has a genuine concern for your soul, I wish I could say that because you are a Christian, because you trust in God’s power and love, you will never be bothered by another problem again.  But you know that’s not true.  You’ll have problems.  In fact, as a Christian, you will have more problems than most.  But those problems do not have to worry you; they do not have to cause you sleepless nights; they do not have to weigh you down; they do not have to be overwhelming at all.  Because the power and love of your Lord is more overwhelming than anything this world can throw at you. 

            Being a Christian does not solve all your problems, but the one in whom you believe does.  And that is why you can be so positive, so confident, so calm.  The Lord who brushed away 185,000 enemies with the back of his hand in a single night is on your side.  The one who stared death and the devil and hell itself in the face and won is in your corner.  The one who sits on the most glorious throne there is in the realms of heaven is your holy Brother.  You have nothing to fear!  You have nothing to worry about!  God has taken care of it all.  And at any point in this life when you start to feel overwhelmed and you go to your Lord in prayer,  he says to you just what he said to King Hezekiah so long ago, “I have heard your prayer… I will defend you and I will save you.”  And that’s exactly what he’s done time and time again.  And it’s all a little overwhelming, isn’t it?

            Amen.

“The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”  - Phil. 4:7

6/24/12 - Hezekiah 3 - 2 Kings 18:4

MAKE THE BREAK

Bronze Snake

            Do you remember the story of the bronze snake?  It happened all the way back during the time of Moses when he was leading the people of Israel through the desert towards the Promised Land.  Like usual, the people had been complaining.  They had been grumbling against the Lord and his plans and so God sent venomous snakes to punish them.  And many of the people died from this act of God before they started to cry out to Moses, asking him to pray to the Lord that he might stop this horrible plague.  Moses did pray for them and God told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole so that whoever would look at the bronze snake and believe God’s promise would live.  And that’s what happened.  Whoever had been bit and looked at the bronze snake recovered from the bite and survived.

            It was certainly a scary time for the Israelites; but it was also a wonderful moment of God’s grace: he saved them in a miraculous way.  And on top of that, this event was yet another way that God was pointing his people to their Savior Jesus.  When Jesus himself was on this earth he told those around him, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15).  The bronze snake was a foreshadowing of salvation through faith in Christ.  And so for the Israelites the story of the bronze snake was not just another thing that happened to their ancestors sometime long ago; it was a story that was meant to remind them of their forgiveness.

            That’s the positive result from this story about the bronze snake.  But there’s also a dark side: Over the years, the Israelites had apparently taken the bronze snake with them; they didn’t leave it in the desert.  And once they were established in the land of Israel and had a kingdom of their own, they set up that bronze snake, not only as a memorial of what had happened in the past, but as something to honor and revere in the years ahead.  And so that bronze snake not only became a relic of Israelite history, but an object of worship for future generations.  That bronze snake sat in the land of Israel for a long, long time: even throughout the reigns of godly kings and prophets like Joshua, Samuel, David, Solomon, Asa, Joash, Uzziah, Elijah, and Elisha.  For 800 years this bronze snake existed in the midst of the people of Israel and it was worshiped as if it were something more than a hunk of melted bronze.

     
Breaking Tradition

            But after 800 years, King Hezekiah took the throne.  “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.  He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan).”  Hezekiah not only got rid of all of the foreign gods and places of worship that the Israelites had been involved with, but he even took something that Moses himself had made with his own hands eight centuries before and destroyed it!  Can you imagine how mad the people must have been?  That royal act couldn’t have made Hezekiah many friends or admirers in the first few weeks of his reign!

            Let’s try to put that in perspective a little bit.  Imagine if a new President of the United States took office and within the first few weeks he decides, “I don’t like the way the people of this country look up to the Statue of Liberty.  It’s not representative of our nation and I think the people hold it in too high of a regard.”  And so the President has it destroyed.  Not just taken down.  Not just moved to another location.  But he actually has the Statue of Liberty destroyed.  Don’t you think there would be a few upset citizens that he would have to deal with?  Or what if he decided that the original constitution of the United States of America, the founding document of our nation signed by the likes of Washington and Adams and Jefferson was holding the people of this country back.  And so to lead people away from depending on the past and start looking towards the future, he had the original constitution taken from the National Archives in Washington D.C. and destroyed it.  The firestorm that would be brought down on his head would be unimaginable if he did something like that!  But the original constitution of the United States and the Statue of Liberty, two things so closely connected with the founding of our country, are less than 250 years old and 150 years old respectively!  The bronze snake that Hezekiah destroyed was almost 800 years old!  Plus it had been made by one of the most famous people ever to belong to the Jewish nation: Moses - the man who had talked to God, who had seen God, who had been buried by God!

            Don’t you think the Israelites were attached to that artifact?  Don’t you think there was some sort of patriotic pride connected with something Moses had made?  They were offering incense to it after all and so I’m sure it was a pretty big deal to them.  People probably came from long distances just to see it.  But Hezekiah had no qualms about destroying this precious piece of Israelite history because he knew that it was for the best of his people.  They couldn’t have liked it.  They couldn’t have like Hezekiah for it.  But he was willing to make the break from tradition because it was harming the faith of those for whom he had been made responsible.

Are We Bold Enough to Make the Break?

            There are many people in our lives for whom we are responsible, people that struggle with ongoing sins.  Many of them Christians, both friends and family members.  People who should know better, but people who can’t seem to get out of the bad habit that they have been in for years.  Are we bold enough to “make the break” for them, pointing out their sin and helping them to get rid of it for the good of their faith?  Or are we too weak, too scared, too concerned about what people think of us to make the break?  And by “making the break” I mean that sometimes we have to “break” the silence and talk about a sin that someone has done.  Or “breaking” the sinful pattern that someone is in.  Or “breaking” through a stubborn attitude that refuses to admit something is wrong.  Or even taking the chance that it might “break” up a friendship to say what you need to say or do what you know the Lord wants you to do.  To “make the break” is not easy.  It’s not fun.  It’s difficult and stressful and sometimes even heartbreaking.  Which is why we don’t often do it.

            The Lord calls on us to be like Hezekiah and help people break away from their sins, but we’d rather let them work it out themselves because it’s less confrontational that way.  The Lord calls us on to break through the sinful blindness of those we love and bring them closer to the truth, but we’d rather not say a thing so that no one gets angry.  The Lord calls on us to break off our relationships with those who refuse to listen to God’s Word and continue to act like unbelievers, but sometimes we act as if we’d rather have them as friends in this life than see them in heaven in the life to come.  We hesitate to “make the break.”  We continually put souls in eternal jeopardy.   We end up caring more about what people will think about us than what their Lord will think about them.  Which is about the least Christian thing we could do.

Jesus Was Willing to Break Everything

            It was a Sabbath Day in Nazareth, and Jesus was back in his hometown for the first time after he started preaching publically.  And as the entire town gathered around to hear this hometown boy made famous, Jesus called them out.  He confronted them with their unbelief and did not sugarcoat the truth.  The people that he had known for the past 30 years were so furious by his audacity that they dragged him to the edge of a cliff to throw him down.  Jesus, of course, did not allow them to murder him, but any connection he had with them was now gone.  Jesus was willing to break his associations with an entire town in order to help them see their Savior.

            And of course there are many instances in Jesus’ life that we could point out.  He was hated by his own brothers because of who he was and what he did.  He did not hesitate to call Peter the devil himself when Peter was acting contrary to God’s will.  Jesus called the spiritual leaders of the day “hypocrites,” “blind guides,” and “white-washed tombs, which are beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean” (Matt. 23:27).  Jesus was always trying to break through stubborn hearts, break off sinful attitudes, and break up damaging habits and traditions at the expense of his popularity and safety.  And he does the same for you.

            He calls your sins to attention, doesn’t he?  He does not hesitate to break up the rosy picture you have of yourself at times.  He has done that to me on more than one occasion!  He has shattered the view I have had of myself at times so that I could see who I really was underneath.  But he has done that for me so that I would rely on the Lord’s forgiveness once again.  Because that is his ultimate goal: he doesn’t just want to make us mad or uncomfortable or depressed; he wants us to realize how sinful we are and how saved we are.  He wants us to separate from sin and see the amazing love of our Savior.  He wants us to find comfort in the cross and joy in that tomb.  He wants us to understand how blessed we are to have a Lord like him who chastises but forgives, who calls us out but who also calls us close.  Jesus has never been one to mince words about who you are, but that also includes who you now are through faith in Jesus: you are his chosen child; you are a saint; you are pure, holy, and at peace; you are clean, you are comforted, you are forgiven; you are his.  And all of that is true because Jesus was willing to break everything for you: not just your own self-evaluation, but he broke the grip of sin on your soul, the chains of Satan on your life, and even the power of death in your grave.  Jesus broke everything for you so that you could now be bound to him.

To Break is to Care

            This is the very message we want all people to know and believe, isn’t it?  This is the only truth that will save them after all!  But there are so many people that are throwing it away!  People who are stuck in sin, struggling with sin, dabbling in sin, living in sin.  Help them, break them of that habit or that routine or that dangerous path they are wandering down; and do it with God’s Word.  I’m not saying it will always be a pleasant experience: breaking something usually isn’t.  In fact, it might cause a lot of hurt and a lot pain.  But if a break from sin and a bond with their Savior does not happen now, what will happen to them then? 

            To break is to care.  It is not being selfish, but loving.  It is an act of concern for those whose souls are in danger instead of being so concerned about how much they like you.  Sometimes that break means a little tap of an egg shell on the edge of a counter; sometimes that break means a hammer on a pane of glass.  Either way, the sinful attitude that blocks and blinds the hearts of those you love must be removed so that they can clearly see their Savior.  And if you do not help them do that, who will?  Pray that the Lord would give you the courage to make the break.  And pray that he then gives you the opportunity to offer them the only Message that mends.

            Amen.

“Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” - 1 Cor. 15:55-57