June 11, 2023 / When God Takes Us to the Brink

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast.

This season of messages takes us through some of the great comeback stories in the Bible.

Pastor John Metter of Cross City Church will show us how God can take any situation in

any life and bring hope and victory out of hardship.

These messages will inspire you to trust God in your own challenging seasons.

Well it's so good to have you here this morning.

If you have your Bibles take them to 2 Kings if you would in the Old Testament.

2 Kings chapter 20, when God takes us to the brink is a chapter that deals with a man named

2 Kings 20 · chapter mention

Hezekiah, a king in the Old Testament who was given a death sentence upon his life.

And it's quite an incredible story that has so many lessons for us today.

And by the way this is the last message of the God's Not Done With You series and we've

enjoyed walking through that.

It's been a real blast to write the book in the first place and then be able to walk through

it in all of our campuses with these stories.

And I hope they blessed you, I hope they encourage you in the days ahead.

But this one will really encourage you because when God takes us to the brink we really need

to know what it means to depend on God.

Now a brink is a place where you take one more step and you move into a whole different

realm of life.

How many of you have ever been to the Grand Canyon?

Would you raise your hand if you've been to the Grand Canyon?

And I love the Grand Canyon, been a number of times.

And I've always enjoyed going to the brink of one of those cliffs at the Grand Canyon

where you're really looking off over the precipice down into hundreds and thousands of feet down

to the bottom.

It kind of gives you a queasy feeling to stand on the side of that because in many places

in the Grand Canyon there are no guard rails, there are no fences, there are no ways to

keep you from falling if you go a step too far.

I can say this, I'm not afraid of heights but I'm afraid of falling from great heights,

right?

It's not how high up you are, it's what happens on the way down that I'm so worried about

and what happens is it stops you at the bottom.

But what happens when life is like that?

What happens when you're on the brink of something that is unchangeable, at least to your perspective,

which is final and catastrophic?

What happens when you are at the brink of death, for example, the way Hezekiah life will have

shown us as we read it?

It wasn't so many months ago that my wife and I were sitting across the table from a

group of ladies from our church that are affectionately known as the bosom buddies.

And they're known for that because they've all faced breast cancer.

They faced it during some of the same eras, some of the same seasons of life.

And I'd heard stories of their journey before but I'd never sat down with them and talked

to them about that journey and what it meant and what it meant to be at the brink of life

and death.

They shared with me the stories of shock and surprise, the idea that this is really happening

to me and they began to think thoughts like what happens to my family?

What happens to me?

Where is God in all this?

Each of them would say they had a crisis of faith where they had to believe God more than

they had ever believed Him before for anything.

Some of them had been 15 years beyond that original prognosis, some eight years beyond

that original prognosis, but each of them had grappled with that being on the brink

of death with a cancer prognosis in their lives.

And every one of their stories had some common threats.

For example, every one of them said it was terrifying and frightening and every one of

them also said, but God met me in the midst of that terrifying, frightening time.

Each one of them would say that God gave them direction, He gave them mixed steps, He helped

them know what to do in their walk through that season of life.

And every one of them were given bonus years where they had a life after that prognosis

and after that walk in the valley of the shadow of death kind of moment and they lived life

differently as a result of what they experienced in that dark valley.

That was the story of Hezekiah.

Except Hezekiah didn't do well on the other side of the healing that God gave him.

I want you to stand with me today as we read 2 Kings chapter 20, the first 11 verses is

2 Kings 20 · chapter mention

going to be what I read today to make up this story as it's told.

Chapter 20 verse 1 of 2 Kings.

In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos came

to him and said, this is what the Lord says, set your house in order for you're going to

die and not live.

Now Isaiah is not a doctor, Isaiah is a prophet.

And a prophet of the Lord, if he prophesies something it must come to pass.

I mean you can't live and still be a prophet of God if you're not 100% accurate with your

prophecies than Isaiah was and so this is literally a death sentence to Hezekiah and

in his mind it's unchangeable.

Verse 2.

Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord saying, please Lord just remember

how I have walked before you wholeheartedly and in truth and have done what is good in

your sight.

And Hezekiah wept profusely.

And even before Isaiah had left the middle court the word of the Lord came to him saying,

son and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, this is what the Lord the God of your father

David says, I have heard your prayer.

I have seen your tears.

Behold I'm going to heal you.

On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord and I will add 15 years to your

life and I will save you in this city from the hand of the king of Assyria and I will

protect this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.

And Isaiah said take a cake of figs and they took it and placed it on the inflamed spot

that would be on Hezekiah's body and he recovered.

Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah, what will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that

I will go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?

Isaiah said this shall be a sign to you from the Lord that the Lord will perform the word

that he has spoken.

Shall the shadow go forward 10 steps or go back 10 steps?

So Hezekiah said it's easy for the shadow to decline 10 steps but have the shadow turn

backward 10 steps?

Then Isaiah the prophet called out to the Lord and he brought the shadow on the stairway

back 10 steps by which it had gone down the stairway of Ahaz.

I hope you understand that that means that God moved the son back 10 steps word in addition

to perform this amazing miracle in the life of Hezekiah.

We have a great God don't we?

He can do anything can't He?

Today let this passage, let this story aid us, help us, encourage us when we find ourselves

on the brink.

When we find ourselves looking down at a very very long drop and have no idea what's about

to happen.

Father help us as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death ourselves.

No matter what that may look like you're the same God that helped Hezekiah.

Thank you for that in Jesus name.

All God's people said amen please be seated if you would.

Well this is Isaiah's valley of the shadow of death.

By the way that's not his own phrase.

That's not his phrase that's David's phrase.

You know where the valley of the shadow of death is don't you?

You know it's in Psalm chapter 23 where David says yea though I walk through the valley

Psalms 23 · chapter mention

of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me.

So it's a great phrase.

It doesn't necessarily mean that you're at the point of death but it means death is so

close to you.

Or death happens to someone around you so close that literally its shadow passes over

you.

You feel it.

You know it.

You experience it in some way.

This is Hezekiah's moment with that shadow of death.

Now for most of us we have no idea of a clear date as to when we're going to die.

If we knew when we were going to die we might live a little bit differently huh?

But we don't know when we'll die.

And yet Hezekiah did know that he was going to be at death's door from the moment that

pronouncement was made by the prophet Isaiah.

We know he already had inflammation.

He had a boil on his body.

We know that much by the reading of the text and other passages as well.

But he had no idea how long he was going to live until Isaiah said you're going to die.

Get your house in order.

Do everything you need to do to get ready because you are going to die.

Now most of us don't have that kind of date on our lives but we all know by human nature

we all are intuitively aware that we will all die someday.

How many of you are aware that we all die?

100% is that death rate right?

100% of all those that are ever born will die.

And it's important for us to know that death is there at some point in the future.

And if we are suddenly accosted by the possibility of death in our lives we need to know what

to do when we are in crisis mode.

We need to know what to do and help other people when they are in their crisis mode.

We need to look at Hezekiah's life to know what he did in crisis mode.

Now it's important for you to know that Hezekiah was a good king.

This is not a king that God is disciplining by the sudden pronouncement of death.

He's a good king.

He's a bold leader.

He's courageous.

He follows the Lord.

In fact in 2 Kings 18 there's a description, a one verse description of Hezekiah's reign

and it says that he trusted in the Lord the God of Israel so that after him there was

none like him among all the kings of Judah nor among those he were before him.

So he was pretty strong.

Nobody like him afterwards.

Nobody like him before him.

He's an incredible king that was focused on God.

It's got an interesting timing to it this kind of season that he's in with God.

And the timing is that he's just finished an incredible victory over the Assyrians where

Sennacherib the wicked ruler of the Assyrians comes against Israel, against Judah and God

intervenes on behalf of the Israelites through the prayers of Hezekiah and Isaiah.

It's a huge military victory that came about because an angel of the Lord was set and slew

185,000 Assyrians in the night.

So he's coming off that great victory and seemingly everything is going well with his

kingdom.

Everything is going well with him as king itself and yet this pronouncement of death

is on his life.

Now before we get into the details about how he handles this issue of imminent death, I

want to talk to you about a theology of suffering.

A theology of suffering is a way to understand why bad things happen to us, why sometimes

we get sick and die, why is and what is behind all that.

Some people have a theology of suffering that says if something bad happens to my life physically

it's because I have done something wrong.

That somehow God is mad at me.

He's angry.

He wants to take me out.

Or I don't have enough faith in God or I haven't trusted him about one thing or another

and so I have this horrific affliction in my life because I haven't done good things

with God.

And my response to you is that's not what the Bible teaches.

It's not what was going on in Hezekiah's life.

He was a good king.

He was following God fully at this point of this pronouncement.

He was one that prayed and God intervened in powerful ways.

He's not suffering because of something that he did wrong.

God is not wanting to just take him out.

God has news for you, a news flash for everybody, if God wants to take you out, He would have

taken you out.

He has no problem doing that.

He's got the ability to just wipe us off the face of the earth like that angel did to 185,000

Assyrians.

Your theology of suffering should have not anything at all to do with how well you've

lived life or how poorly you've lived life.

The truth is sometimes we can afflict ourselves in how we live.

We can compromise our own health and obviously that's not a wise thing to do.

But that's not what's happening here and that's not a good theology of suffering.

Sometimes horrible things happen to good people.

We live in a sin-filled, sick world, don't we?

We live in a world filled with death and sickness and illness.

Your theology should not be that you caused it, that you brought it upon yourself, nor

did Hezekiah feel that way.

But sickness sometimes comes upon us to test us.

Now sickness sometimes comes upon us to teach us lessons for a lifetime.

That's what those ladies who are called the bosom buddies would say to you today if they

were standing on this stage, God taught me so much through this.

God tested me in so many ways through what I went through.

And so it is with Hezekiah's life.

He has some things to teach us.

He has some lessons for us to learn.

I want you to notice what they are.

First of all, notice that Hezekiah immediately upon hearing the pronouncement from the prophet

began to focus fully on God.

Whatever else he was doing leading up to that moment in terms of 100% focus, all that went

out the window and he began to be completely focused on God.

In fact, the very memorable phrase in verse two is this, that he turned his face to the

wall and prayed to the Lord.

Turned his face to the wall.

I call this a face to the wall moment.

Have you ever had a face to the wall moment where you knew no one else could help you?

At the moment he had that face to the wall moment, Isaiah was still in the room.

The great prophet was still there.

It may have been that others of his counselors were in the room as well.

Those who would have helped him physically were in the room as well.

But Hezekiah turned away from the prophet, he turned away from his counselors, he turned

away from any healers that could have been there and face the wall because he knew what

he was facing was something that he could only go to God for.

Face to wall moments are important moments in our life because we realize we can't do

anything about what's going on in our life and we need God and we need him desperately

and that's where Hezekiah was.

I suspect that we have more face to wall opportunities than we know about and sometimes we don't

really realize how face to wall those opportunities are and we need to learn what it means to

face the wall and just focus fully on God.

By facing the wall, basically he said the prophet can't help me, he's already made

the pronouncement.

The doctors can't help me, they've already done what they could do.

My counselors can't help me because they don't have the ability to do that.

I just need to do business with God.

Notice that Hezekiah is not ranting, he's not raving, he's not angry, he's not upset,

he's just weeping and praying because he knows only God has the answer.

He's not running away trying to escape his death, he's hanging on one thing and one thing

only and that is he has a God that he worships, he's able to do more than anyone else can

do with his life.

That leads me to make a statement that you should remember when God is your only hope,

you become focused and personal with God.

I know there are times in our lives when we realize deep down God is our only hope but

we're trying to do a lot of other things on our own.

Sometimes we just need to take the shortcut to God.

We just need to say I don't need to be trying to do anything about this, I need to go directly

to God in my own face to wall moment.

Now Hezekiah is not the only man that knew how to do that.

Jehoshaphat, another king in the Old Testament, when faced with armies that were about to

surround Jerusalem, he began to make the statement.

He said in his prayer, for we are powerless, nor do we know what to do but our eyes are

on you.

I love that prayer, we're powerless and we don't even know what to do but God our eyes

are on you and we're not looking for anyone or anything else to rescue us, face to wall

moments.

Look at God and say we're powerless but you're not.

Those are important moments in your life aren't they?

I don't know how many of you have had moments like that but those are moments that you don't

tend to forget because often God makes himself very, very real to you.

Now Jehoshaphat's prayer that I just shared with you reminds me of the gospel, did you

know that?

Now the reason it reminds me of the gospel is because when we come to faith in Jesus

Christ we come after realizing that we are powerless to do anything about being right

with God.

There's no way that we can please him, there's no way that we can bridge the gap between

sinful mankind and holy God and so we say in essence in our prayer we're powerless,

we can't fix that.

We're separated from you, we're sinful human beings, religion doesn't do it, being sincere

doesn't do it, trying to do good works doesn't do it, we're powerless, we don't even know

what to do so our eyes are on you, that's really what the gospel is.

And when you put your eyes on Jesus Christ who died on the cross for you you're doing

what you need to do to bridge the gap between sinful mankind and holy God.

Hezekiah is doing that with physical things, Jehoshaphat was doing that with the threat

of the armies coming.

It shouldn't really surprise us when we encounter as believers tough times and tough circumstances

where we have the opportunity to put our eyes fully on God one more time.

You did that when you came to faith in Jesus and just as you have received the Lord Jesus

Christ so also walk in him is what Paul said and I'm just saying to you today when those

moments come in your life you know what to do because you've already trusted Christ as

Lord and Savior of your life.

You don't know what to do about your life yourself but you do know that he can do something

about it, your eyes need to be on him.

Focus fully on God.

When I talked to the ladies in that really special group who had gone through the cancer

about their face to wall moments they expressed a range of first responses.

Some felt stunned and unbelieving they just thought how could this be happening?

I mean I've had a clean bill of health all my life until this moment how can everything

change in just a moment?

Others were experiencing a strange calm.

I ought to be more upset about this one said.

I ought to be in more of a panic but I have this peace that has been moving over my life.

Another one felt like that the surrender was already there.

She said that my prayer to God was if this is it then thank you for the life I've had

then this is it.

That unusual kind of surrender to God.

Practical thoughts also like what about my family and what about insurance and all the

things that they needed to deal with physically speaking but every one of them said that it

was common in their life and as they compared their stories they said God's grace was there

and it was there in abundance and it was enough to help us through every decision we had to

make.

It was enough to face it and not face it alone but face it with God on our side.

That grace was present to help us in our time of need.

You know I'm very grateful for that and I do believe that God gives you all the grace

you need for every challenge that you have in life but you don't really feel that grace

until the moment of that challenge is happening.

For these ladies that's what was going on.

One of them said and summed it up for all of them I knew I was not alone.

I knew God was with me.

And we know God is always with us as believers but God is especially there with us when we

go through dark times and difficult times.

That's why David said, ye that I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I'll fear

no weaver.

Why?

Because you are with me.

So focus fully on God.

Secondly Hezekiah's life showed us that you can evaluate your life.

Hezekiah did that.

Verse three his prayer says this, remember now oh Lord I beseech you how I have walked

before you in truth and with a whole heart.

And I would say desperation leads us to evaluate.

I believe that every time I'm desperate about something in my life that I'm wondering how

that something got there.

I evaluate my life.

I think through what have I been doing and saying and how have I been living.

Now Isaiah's statement leads us to believe that he is naming reasons that he ought to

be able to keep living.

In other words Lord I've been faithful before you.

I've done everything you've wanted me to do and I'm telling you that I'm willing to do

whatever you want me to do.

He's evaluating his life.

The Bible tells us he's also weeping bitterly.

He's examining his life for anything that he needs to find.

He's probably also thinking about things that we would think about if we were faced with

this kind of death sentence.

Here's some thoughts that I had that Hezekiah may have had, may not have had, but should

have had.

Have I lived life without regrets?

Have I done and said what I needed to do and say to those around me?

Will I live honorably?

Will I live life with such an honor that I will glorify God?

Will I leave an example for other people to follow?

Have I lived life well?

I mean we should not have to wait until those face the wall moments to ask those questions

but those questions become important to us when we're in those moments.

But desperation also leads us to remember and Hezekiah was doing some remembering as

well.

Now keep in mind Hezekiah and Isaiah had walked together as king and prophet long enough to

where they saw God come through time after time when they faced certain death from a

military assault upon them.

For example in 2 Chronicles chapter 32 verse 20 and so and following you find this amazing

2 Chronicles 32:20

story unfolding about God's rescue of them when Sennacherib was trying to basically freeze

them out and keep them from having water and keep them from having food.

The Bible says King Hezekiah and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz prayed about this

and cried out to heaven and the Lord sent an angel.

This is one of those face the wall moments.

So God sent an angel and destroyed every mighty warrior commander and officer in the camp

of the king of Assyria.

So he returned in shame to his own land.

That would be Sennacherib that did that.

And when he had entered the temple of his God some of his own children killed him there

with the sword.

So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib

the king of Assyria and from the hand of all others and guided them on every side.

This is where you can let your imagination run wild.

What does it look like for an angel to kill one hundred and eighty five thousand soldiers?

But what it ought to do is let you conclude that God's faithfulness and God's power

is enough and if I'm facing certain death from the pronouncement of a prophet I'm going

to remember that this is the God that can do anything and change any circumstance.

And you and I need to remember that when we pray.

Matter of fact every great prayer in the Bible is usually preceded by a pronouncement of

God's power.

Oh Lord I know that you are able to do above and beyond what I can even imagine.

So therefore I ask you to do this.

That's the way we pray.

We pray remembering what God can do.

And I think that's what Hezekiah is doing.

He's remembering God's great exploits.

You're the God that parts the sea for the Israelites.

You're the God that makes the sun stand still.

You're the God that makes manna fall from heaven.

You're the God that raises the dead.

The God that calms the waters in the storm.

You're the God that can do anything.

And He is the God that can do anything.

We ought not struggle with whether God is able to do something.

Our focus ought to be on will God do something in my life.

God will you do something for me?

Remember He can do that.

Remember you're not prepared but remember that He is prepared for everything that you'll

ever encounter in your life.

He knows the end from the beginning.

Number three.

Hezekiah also learned that you should empty yourself completely.

The Bible says in verse three that Hezekiah wept bitterly.

And the key to this prayer I think is embedded in these very very simple words.

It's a word in the Hebrew that says great welling and great weeping.

In other words Hezekiah is completely and desperately emptied.

I have nothing to offer and I have no way to change this.

I'm just empty.

Being empty is not a bad thing to be.

Being empty is not a bad place to be.

For those of us who follow Christ really we need to be better at emptying ourselves instead

of being full of ourselves.

We have a feeling like we have something to contribute to things that only God can do.

So here He is, He's weeping bitterly.

He's emptying Himself and any hope He has in His own life.

Jim Sembola, great pastor out of New York City made this statement.

He said he prayed 22 words and then he broke down and wept bitterly.

But sometimes weeping is the best kind of praying because God understands the language

of tears.

I love that line.

Have you ever been in a place where you couldn't even pray, you just weep?

That's what encourages you to know that God knows and understands the language of tears.

He understands what it means to go through dark valleys of life.

He understands that you don't even know what to say or what to pray or you don't know how

to respond to the things happening in your life.

He understands who you are, understands what you're going through.

Even though nobody else has any way of knowing it, God knows everything about your life and

He understands it when you're going through there.

22 brief words and God answered that amazing prayer.

I think the prayer is amazing not because of its length or its brevity but I think it's

amazing because of the depth of surrender.

He's just saying, I've got nothing.

Only you can get this God.

The greatest times of my life have been after I prayed that way.

I think some of those greatest times come because I realized I didn't have anything.

I didn't have anything to offer.

I didn't have any more strength.

I didn't have any more wisdom.

I didn't have anything I could do on my own.

I had to have God intervene in my life.

I would say in comparison to surrender, praying is easy.

It's surrendering this heart.

It's difficult to say I'm giving up on my plans.

The New Testament is very encouraging to us when we come to the place of not even knowing

how to pray, that we should still try to pray but when you don't even know what words to

pray the Bible has the amazing encouragement out of Romans chapter eight verse 26 and 27.

It assures us of this.

In the same way the spirit also helps our weaknesses for we do not know how to pray

as we should.

But the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he intercedes

for the saints according to the will of God.

What an incredible assurance.

The next time you don't know what to pray, the next time you have nothing to offer God,

keep in mind that the spirit of God inside of you will intercede on your behalf with

groanings too deep for words.

That means you're not saying anything because you have nothing to say.

But the Holy Spirit knows how to pray, how to represent you before the Father and he's

doing that every moment of your life.

So here's Hezekiah, he's emptied himself, he's prayed, he's weeping bitterly and God

answers his prayer.

I think this is amazing.

Go back to verse four of second Kings chapter 20, make sure you have this fastened down

2 Kings 20 · chapter mention

in your mind.

It says, even before Isaiah left the middle courtyard, the word of the Lord came to him.

So Isaiah knows that Hezekiah has turned his face to the wall.

He says, I have nothing else to offer.

I've given him the truth that God gave me to give him and now I'm just heading out.

So he's gotten out to the middle courtyard, presumably going outside the walls themselves

and the Lord speaks to him before he gets out of there.

Now I don't know how long it takes to say 22 words.

I don't know how long it takes for Isaiah to walk from the inner court to the middle

court but I know it's not long.

And I know that short prayer brought a really short quick answer from God, not the typical

answer mind you.

It's not always this quick, but quickly he said, Isaiah get back in there, I'm gonna

heal this guy.

That's pretty powerful.

I'm just thinking today about the brevity of that prayer and about the effectiveness

of it and in verses four and five and six you see it written out.

He says in verse five, return and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, this is what the

Lord, the God of your father David says, I have heard your prayer.

I've seen your tears.

Behold, I'm going to heal you.

On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord and I will add 15 years to your

life and I will save you in this city from the hand of the king of Assyria and I will

protect this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.

What an answer to a prayer.

An incredible story of intervention.

But there's a big question associated with this thing.

How is it and why does God declare one thing and then do another?

And how is God sovereign but seemingly changing course on this prayer?

And what about God declaring judgment upon the Ninevites, but then once Jonah preaches

and they repent, he relents and saves them.

But why does the sovereign God say you have not because you ask not if he knows all things?

Could it be that desperation moments are divinely orchestrated to teach us to depend on God

like we've never depended on him before?

Could these moments be tests of faith that help us battle panic, set aside fear, and

hold on to God like we've never held on to him before?

Do you remember the life of Job?

Remember how desperate he was and how he cried out to God and how he leaned on everything

he understood about God but remember how much God taught him through his sufferings that

he wouldn't have learned otherwise?

Do you remember any of those moments in your life when you've gone through tough times

and God's taught you in ways that you wouldn't have learned otherwise?

The bosom buddies told me that in their desperation they found new things happening in their lives.

They learned things about God.

They learned to trust in ways they never had before.

They said that their desperation gave way to joy and a calm assurance.

They were aware that God was absolutely present and working in their lives even though their

body at the moment said otherwise.

One of them said, I determined to let this battle with cancer make me better, not bitter.

Another one said, I was afraid but I was grateful for his presence.

And still another one said, God told me I've got this and I believed him.

And she had a coffee cup made with the I got this, God's got this on the coffee cup.

She showed it to my wife and I at that dinner and my wife said, I'll take that cup from

you if I can.

We all need to know that God's got this.

And I love that phrase because I know I don't have this and I know you don't have this.

We don't have it but God has got whatever needs to be got.

God actually rescued Hezekiah.

But from that moment on Hezekiah responded in the worst possible way to the healing of

God in his life and it's a lesson we need to learn today.

And that's the fourth point, final point today.

Find a place of humility.

Find a place of humility.

When God works in your life in a powerful way, don't get arrogant.

When God works in your life in an interventional way, when God answers your prayer, when God

does amazing things around you, don't become proud.

It's not you, it's God.

It's God that's done that in your life.

It's God that healed Hezekiah.

It's God that rescued him from the Assyrian armies.

Find a place of humility.

Second Chronicles chapter 33 verse 25 sums up the latter years of Hezekiah's life and

2 Chronicles 33:25

it said this, it said, Hezekiah gave no return for the benefit he received because his heart

was proud.

And to me it's the most stunning reversal of direction you can imagine.

Humble, humble, humble because he's about to die.

Turns his face to the wall, weeps bitterly, empties himself.

But then when God answers so quickly, so powerfully, so supernaturally, he's puffed up with pride

and arrogant.

And later on dignitaries come to visit.

They want to know the story of Hezekiah's healing and he shows them his riches and the

beauty of his castle instead of showing what his God has done in his life.

Maybe Hezekiah thought it was his good life that gave him favor with God, but his good

life didn't keep him from that pronouncement, so it certainly didn't give him that good

moment of healing.

And his pride and his arrogance that he had after his healing was so bad that it undid

all the good he did during the years of his reign.

Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine to let everything God did in your life unravel because of your pride?

But our friends that I've introduced you to, those ladies that battled cancer together,

they lived in a far different way than Hezekiah did.

In fact, they teach us how to live today based on what they learned while they were in the

valley of the shadow of death.

They chose the humble life.

They chose the grateful life.

They chose the meaningful and the fruitful life that we can all have.

And when I visited with these ladies and have continued to visit with them in the days since,

certain verses came to the surface that I'm going to share with you, three of them, that

became so important to them during that time.

The first one is Proverbs chapter three, verses five and six.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean upon your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your pathways straight.

Each of these ladies to an individual says it takes a lot to trust God with your health

and with your future, but a crisis can help get you there.

A crisis can help you realize that no matter what your plans are, no matter how wise you

think you are, how hopeful you think you are, we have to trust in the Lord and not in our

own understanding that our future is not in our control, but it's in His control and it's

okay that the future is in His control.

A second verse they reminded me of as they talk was Romans 8.28.

I jokingly said to an earlier service that we might be at risk of overusing Romans 8.28

until I realized you can't overuse scripture.

You just need to memorize it and live it.

And what does it say?

Read it with me.

You know what it is in Romans chapter eight, verse 28.

Say it like you believe it.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love

God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

I hope you know that verse really well and I hope you know even more importantly that

God behind this verse who is able to cause all things to work together for good no matter

what they are.

And every one of these ladies referenced Romans 8.28 because the after look of their journey

was very different from the look going in.

They look back and saw all that God had done.

And the life that these ladies live today is different from what it was before.

All of them minister to others going through the same kind of thing.

They're gifted teachers, they're loving leaders, they're precious family members.

And among them they would all say that trivial things become even more trivial now.

They don't waste time doing things that are not worth their time because they know what

it means to have big rocks in their lives that they need to focus on.

They know what it means to have a more limited timeline so you don't waste your time on doing

things that are not worth it.

One of them said this.

She said I will never worship the same way again.

Every moment I have to worship God is a gift from God and I'm grateful for that.

So there's an appreciation, there's a gratitude for what they have after walking through the

valley of the shadow of death.

And then finally, each of them, almost each of them referenced the verse in Psalm chapter

Psalms 90:12

90 verse 12.

So teach us to number our days so that we may present to you a heart of wisdom.

What a verse.

A verse that acknowledges the preciousness of life and the fact that we may not have

months and years, we may only have days or hours.

But teach us to number our days.

Teach us to live as though we're on a lease on life from you God.

That you give us every heartbeat that happens inside of our heart.

That you give us every breath of air that we have.

We belong to you.

We need to number our days so that we can live in a wise way.

What a great word of wisdom from those ladies.

They would challenge you to believe God, to trust God with every moment of your life,

but to never take your focus off of Him.

That's what Hezekiah would say if he could come back and preach his message today.

With all the grace he has for not living humbly, he would say live humbly before you God.

You know today I don't know where you are, but I know this.

I know that all of us walk through valleys and dark times in our lives and some of us

have faced the valley of the shadow of death.

Some of us have physical ailments that we worry about and sometimes we worry too much

about some things in our lives.

But here's what I want you to know.

I want you to know that God's got this.

God has the ability to cause all the things in their life to work together for good.

And that God wants you to trust Him with all of your heart, with all of your life, beginning

with trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life.

Three invitations I give you today.

The first invitation is to stop at a decision station today.

Talk to someone who will pray with you about what you're going through in life.

And I would say to you if you've never put your trust and faith in Jesus as Lord and

Savior, then pray Jehoshaphat's prayer.

Lord we have no idea what to do and we are powerless so our eyes are on you.

And I want to encourage you to look at Jesus Christ on that cross paying for sin on your

behalf and make the decision to give your life to Christ.

We will talk to you about that at the decision station.

Secondly I invite you to come to guest reception just outside the center exit doors across

the hallway.

I would love to meet you and welcome you to our church, tell you more things about Cross

City Church.

Third invitation, bring someone with you as you come next week.

Listen, people need hope and they need help and we have it here through the word of God

and through the gospel of Jesus.

I would encourage you to do that.

Would you stand with me as we have a closing word of prayer.

Father today I am so grateful for the life of Hezekiah and the story that you've given

us here in his life.

Thank you for those friends of ours that have walked through similar valleys of the shadow

of death.

Thank you Father for your goodness and your graciousness when you come through in our

lives and preserve our lives.

Thank you also for your graciousness in giving us eternal life when this life is over.

We have something even greater on the other side because of you Lord.

And I want to thank you for that.

Lord today let those who need to focus fully on you be able to do that from this moment

because of these words I ask this in Jesus name.

Amen and God bless.