Walking With the Lord

Dear Friends in Christ Jesus,

            While I have been pastor here we have had one member that lived to be 100 years old.  Many of you remember Amanda Dahlke.  She could preach a powerful sermon both by her words and actions.  I remember one day I visited her and she told me how she went up and down the stairs in her house.  She would go to the landing at the top of the stairs.  She would then ask the Lord to help her get down all the way to the bottom safely.  Then she would go step by step down to the bottom.  At the bottom she said, “then I would say a thank you prayer for the Lord’s help.”  With her work done she would then go to the steps again and ask the Lord to help her up each step.  When she would get to the top of the landing she would again say a thank you prayer for the Lord’s help getting her to the top of the steps. 

            In contrast to that how many people back out of the garage, hit the accelerator and head down the highways and freeways never once thinking to ask the Lord for help or praying for a safe trip.  Our text takes us back into the Old Testament at the time of King Hezekiah.  He also was a man of faith who trusted the Lord in his daily walk with Him.  Our text unfolds a time of great stress for the nation of Israel.  We see the leadership the King Hezekiah, a man of God sets for his people.  As we keep this word before us may we consider our own “Walking with the Lord.” 

I.                    

Faith Walk

In the book of 2 Chronicles we really meet this king in chapter 29 where we read, (2 Chr 29:1-3 NIV)  Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. …{2} He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. {3} In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the LORD and repaired them.  When our text opens it is the yar 701.  We find another King is causing troubles for God’s people, King Sennacherib.  He is king of Assyria.  He has amassed a huge army to capture the holy land, the land of Israel. 

            When these troubles arise I would like to note what King Hezekiah did to care for his people and his own life.  Our text unfolds many steps: 

1.  He consulted with his military men and recognized the army of Sennacherib would need water to survive. 

2. A large force of men assembled, and they blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land.

3. Then he worked hard repairing all the broken sections of the wall and building towers on it.

4. He built another wall outside that one and reinforced the supporting terraces of the City of David.

5. He also made large numbers of weapons and shields.

6. He appointed military officers over the people. 

7. He encouraged them with these words: "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles."

When we confess our faith in Jesus we are admitted total dependence on him.  We acknowledge that there is nothing we can do or offer to the Lord that he should or would save us.  We are totally dependant on the mercy of God and the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus that the Lord would bring us salvation.  The struggle we have as God’s people is to live that faith and trust day by day, step by step.  The question comes up what difference does Jesus really make in our daily personal lives. 

Now King Hezekiah could have totally forgotten about the Lord, had meeting after meeting, enacted many plans and only when Sennacherib was breaking down the gates of Jerusalem would he turn to the Lord for help.  In other words trying all he could before turning to the Lord.  Don’t we all too often know how that has described days in our spiritual journey!  We have relied on our wisdom, our plans, our strength, our friends and our financial plans to get us through.  Only when everything else has failed we then turn to the Lord.  King Hezekiah did not always have a response of faith.  He too like us would try other things first.  You have to read another book of the Bible, 2 Kings to see some of the early weaknesses of King Hezekiah. 

He now is at the point where he used all the gifts, talents, resources and abilities God had given him.  A faith walk does not mean we have to avoid doctors, financial planners, lawyers and simply say, God will have to get me through this.  King Hezekiah used all that God had provided.  But he knew ultimately where his answer was, not in the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God. 

II.                  

Victorious Walk.

When God’s people live and walk by faith in the Lord, they still will face all kinds of challenges to the very faith they profess.  Listen to King Sennacherib’s words, On what are you basing your confidence, that you remain in Jerusalem under siege? {11} When Hezekiah says, 'The LORD our God will save us from the hand of the king of Assyria,' he is misleading you, to let you die of hunger and thirst. {12} Did not Hezekiah himself remove this god's high places and altars, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, 'You must worship before one altar and burn sacrifices on it'? {13} "Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the other lands? Were the gods of those nations ever able to deliver their land from my hand? {14} Who of all the gods of these nations that my fathers destroyed has been able to save his people from me? How then can your god deliver you from my hand? {15} Now do not let Hezekiah deceive you and mislead you like this. Do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or the hand of my fathers. How much less will your god deliver you from my hand!"

            Added to that the King insulted the Lord, 17} The king also wrote letters insulting the LORD, the God of Israel, and saying this against him: "Just as the gods of the peoples of the other lands did not rescue their people from my hand, so the god of Hezekiah will not rescue his people from my hand." {18} Then they called out in Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to terrify them and make them afraid in order to capture the city.

            Have you had people challenge your faith in God?  Has your own mind at times raised doubts in your own heart?  Has Satan come with guilt or shame to try to get you to doubt God’s presence in your life or that he should have compassion on you in your need?  In this world we will be attacked on all and every side.  We will see the Christian faith, our faith, our hope challenged, ridiculed. Satan is our Sennacherib today.  At times our faith may even waver.  We need these reminders so that when we are attacked, we are strengthened and reassured that we are not alone. 

            King Sennacherib would then experience the judgment and justice of the Lord.  Hezekiah would be vindicated.  The Lord’s angel became the messenger of death to the defiler. The scoffer was silenced.  The believer was victorious.  In Christ we are victorious over Satan the accuser and liar. 

            Dear Amanda took step by step with the Lord.  I was reminded of Amanda last week when flying over the Pacific Ocean over 35,000 feet up.  We hit turbulence.  When Amanda at the age of 90 went for a hot air balloon ride I asked her, weren’t you worried?  She reminded me, the God who is with me down here is up there with me too.  This is our wonderful Lord.  Whether in cars on the interstate highways or in planes in the sky, or our bed at home or in the hospital, our Lord will never leave us or forsake us.  Amen.