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Are you an influencer or are you the influenced?

In today’s world, the word “influence” has been hijacked by social media culture. But influence, at its core, is far deeper than followers or visibility. According to Webster’s dictionary, influence means to affect or change someone or something in an indirect but important way, or to sway or persuade someone into a course of action.

Every single one of us is influencing someone. The real question is: are you leading people in the right direction, or being led by the wrong one?

We see the power of influence in our homes, our workplaces, our schools, and our culture. Just like we warn our children to be careful who they surround themselves with, we must also examine who is shaping us—and how we are shaping others.

The Story of King Hezekiah: A Case Study in Influence

In 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, we find one of the most powerful examples of influence in Scripture: King Hezekiah.

Hezekiah’s story is remarkable because of where he came from. His father, King Ahaz, was one of the most wicked kings in Judah’s history. He practiced idolatry, led the nation away from God, and even sacrificed his own children.

And yet, Hezekiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord.

How is that possible?

The Hidden Influence That Shaped Hezekiah

Scripture tells us that Hezekiah’s mother was Abijah, whose name means “Yahweh is my father.” She was the daughter of Zechariah, believed by many scholars to be a faithful spiritual leader.

This detail is not insignificant.

It suggests that while Hezekiah grew up in a corrupt environment, he was also exposed to godly influence—through his mother and her family. That early foundation shaped his convictions and ultimately positioned him to lead differently.

This is a powerful reminder: influence in the early years matters.

How One Leader Changed a Nation

When Hezekiah became king at just 25 years old, his first priority was clear: restore what had been broken.

He reopened the temple, repaired it, and removed everything that defiled it. He called the priests and Levites to consecrate themselves and return to proper worship.

He didn’t just make small adjustments—he led a complete spiritual reset.

Hezekiah understood something we often forget:
When leadership changes, culture follows.

Rebuilding What Was Broken: Returning to God

Hezekiah didn’t stop at restoring the temple. He reinstituted worship, sacrifices, and the Passover. He called the people back into covenant with God.

He even sent letters throughout all of Israel—not just Judah—inviting everyone to return to the Lord.

Some mocked the invitation. Some rejected it.

But some humbled themselves and came.

That’s how influence works. You don’t need everyone. You need the willing.

The Reality of Resistance: When People Reject Truth

Not everyone responded positively to Hezekiah’s call.

Scripture says many laughed and mocked the message.

This is important:
being a person of influence does not mean universal acceptance.

It means standing firm in truth, even when others reject it.

Hezekiah remained faithful, and those who were willing responded. God honored that obedience and brought unity among the people.

The 7 Values That Defined Hezekiah’s Influence

From Hezekiah’s life, we can clearly identify seven values that shaped his leadership and influence:

1. He Valued the Ways of God

He returned to God’s original commands, not cultural adaptations.

2. He Valued the House of God

His first priority was restoring the temple.

3. He Valued the Things of God

He honored what belonged to God, treating it with care and purpose.

4. He Valued the Offerings of God

He reestablished giving, ensuring provision for those serving the Lord.

5. He Valued the Times of God

He honored sacred seasons like the Passover.

6. He Valued Evangelism and Repentance

He actively called others back to God.

7. He Valued the Word of God

He spoke truth, encouraged faith, and relied on God’s promises.

These values created a foundation that didn’t just impact his life—it transformed a nation.

Standing Strong When the Enemy Pushes Back

Eventually, opposition came.

The king of Assyria threatened Judah, mocked God, and tried to instill fear. But Hezekiah responded with faith:

“Be strong and courageous… with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.”

He didn’t rely on human strength. He relied on God.

When fear rises, influence matters even more.
Your words can either spread fear or strengthen faith.

Trusting God Instead of Human Strength

Hezekiah demonstrated what it means to trust God fully.

When faced with threats, he brought the problem directly to the Lord. He spread the enemy’s letter before God and prayed.

He didn’t strategize first. He surrendered first.

And God responded.

This is the difference between being influenced by fear and being anchored in faith.

What Are You Valuing Right Now?

Hezekiah’s life challenges us to examine our own:

• What is influencing your decisions?
• What are you prioritizing?
• Are you shaping your environment or being shaped by it?

Each of us carries influence. Each of us has a role to play.

The question is whether we will use it intentionally.

A Prayer for Strength, Influence, and Faith

Father, I just thank you for your word. I thank you for the power that you have made available to us by your word, that it is the bread of life. It is what feeds us. It is what nourishes us.

It’s what gives us the eyesight to know what to pray and how to come at these things that we’re dealing with. Father, I pray your encouragement right now to each one because of your word, that they would feel your strength right now, that they would feel your encouragement, that they would know that you do hear, you do see, and you do answer prayer, that you will not leave them.

that you will be right there. You have given us your Holy Spirit to be with us as the helper and our constant companion to lead us, to guide us, to speak truth to us. Father, you are the light that shines bright in darkness, that no matter how dark the darkness is, your light shines bright, showing us what we need to see and bringing light to those dark places.

Father, for everyone who is fighting a battle, for every mother who is trying to raise their child in the fear and in the admonition of the Lord, that you would empower their influence. You would give them the words to say. They would know their times and moments, know how to deposit, know how to train up, know how to teach. Father, that you would send wisdom.

wisdom by your word, wisdom by ministers, wisdom by the Holy Spirit, wisdom to know what to say, when to say it, how to say it, to have understanding of what they read in your word. Illuminate to them what they do not understand. Bring fresh revelation where there has been death and no life. Father, we ask you to make all of us your influencers to take back

our nation to stand in strength knowing that with you God if we are with you that there is more with us than there is with them and that you will bring the victory if we will stand in obedience father that we will see where we must humble ourselves that we will do according to your word we will humble ourselves we will turn from our wicked ways

You will then hear our cries. You will heal our land. Help us to be those who carry the torch of faith, who stand in the face of adversity, that we do not give up. We do not give in. We walk as influencers for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Be with your people today. Strengthen them. Encourage them. In Jesus name we

Amen.

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

Jaime Luce (00:01.774)
Are you an influencer or are you the influenced? In 2002, there was a comedy put out titled My Big Fat Greek Wedding. in this film, the mother, Maria Portacollos, or Portacollos if I’m saying that incorrectly, was played by Laini Kazan and to her daughter Tula in the movie.

She said something very famous that I have heard quoted many times since. This is what she said. Let me tell you something Tula. The man is the head, but the woman is the neck and she can turn the head any way she wants. My friends, that is the power of influence. It’s position, but it’s influence and

If you think about how we train up our children, we tell them kind of the old saying that birds of a feather flock together and that you have to be careful who their friends are and who is surrounding them because we understand that they will be greatly influenced by those people around them in the decisions they make and in the path that they take. So today in this episode, we are going to be speaking about that very topic. Are you the influencer?

Or are you the influenced? We’ve got a great example of how this plays out. We have been studying in second Kings and in today we are going to be looking at the life of Hezekiah, King Hezekiah. And, and this is very much in a contrast to his father, King Ahaz. So welcome to the Jaime Luce podcast. Thanks for tuning in today and let’s dig in. if you’ll go with me to

Second Kings chapter 18. I want to start, this is really interesting in case you didn’t know this, I may have mentioned this before, but when you’re looking at the books of First and Second Kings, you kind of want to tandemly be reading the books of First and Second Chronicles. They’re not separate from one another, they add to one another. Usually what one doesn’t have, the other one has and vice versa.

Jaime Luce (02:29.142)
in regard to the Kings of both Israel and Judah. And we also see the influence of the prophets all through this timing. And we’re going to see that today, both with King Hezekiah and we’ll look in second Kings and we’ll look in second Chronicles as well. Let me make sure. Yeah. Second Chronicles as well. And then we’ll also take a minute to look in the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah is actually the prophet who comes on to the scene during this time and of course he is also a man of influence but I found something really interesting there’s so many things to talk about when you’re talking about these passages and King Hezekiah’s life. King Hezekiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord. There was none like him. None that were before him, none that came after him and all the things that he did.

he followed in the ways of his father, King David. What is so amazing about his rise is that his father was extremely wicked. mean, extremely wicked. was a horrible, horrible King. He even offered sacrificed his sons in the fire. So it made me really wonder what in the world could have caused this

Hezekiah to be so godly when his father was so wicked and the kings prior to him did not fully serve the Lord. They weren’t following in all the ways that they were taught by Moses. They weren’t consistently living in the way that they should be living. It wasn’t something that was a daily ritual. People had forgotten and not just forgotten, had walked away from the ways of God.

They were serving every imaginable idol from every nation around them. If they were up against some other nation in battle, they would then serve those gods too, hoping to win some kind of victory if they thought that that group of people gained their victory by serving those gods. They just, they served every kind of God. It makes so much sense why God said from the very beginning that I am the Lord God only.

Jaime Luce (04:54.472)
I am the only God and you can only serve me and don’t make for yourselves any images. Don’t create idols. Don’t serve other gods. He was trying to it’s it’s number one. It’s foremost. If you want to succeed in life, if you want to be able to live as we were intended to live in the blessing and in the provision that God had set out for us, we have to get that first thing right.

You fear God only you don’t fear other gods. You don’t fear other people. You don’t fear the flesh. You stand on the promise of who God is and, the security of knowing whenever the children of God allowed the Lord to lead them, they humbled themselves and they did what he told them to do. Then they would see great victory. They would live in great prosperity. They would have every, every need met.

They would have no issues, no problems. And yet time after time after time, we see that it didn’t take even one generation to completely have, you have one King come up who doesn’t serve God and his influence is so great because he’s King. That the entire land turns and goes the way that that King goes. Now there was all

always a remnant. God has always had a remnant and there are always those pockets of those who knew truth and held fast to the truth. Sadly to say they were few. They were few compared to how many were so evil. That’s why the prophet Elijah said that I left alone and left. I he felt like he was the only one left and yet God said no I have seven thousand that haven’t bowed the knee.

that in all the hundreds of thousands and in the multitudes and millions of people, he still had a small remnant. To this day, though there are Christians all over the world,

Jaime Luce (07:01.998)
I fear that we are actually living in that same state, that there is a remnant of us, but there is not a mass of us. There might be those who call themselves by the name of Christian, but they don’t tear down the high places. They don’t remove the other idols. They don’t…

make the changes that they need to make to put God first and keep him first. They don’t acknowledge him in the direction that they go. They don’t ask for his direction when it comes to the battles they face in life. And instead they turn to the arm of the flesh and they’re constantly hiring out like these kings to the other nations and other kings, people they think can help them to come and strengthen them. And they would give to them what actually belonged to the Lord. Treasures that were found in the house of God.

But instead of giving them to God, and instead of turning to God, they would take those things and turn to people and waste their abundance and waste their wealth and waste their, the gold and the silver and all the articles and the things that they had made and consecrated to God, the things that were holy. And they would take them and they would give them instead to those who stood against God, who served every God but him.

who would mock him looking for help from the outside. And so I just was captivated by Hezekiah. How, Hezekiah, did you grow up and become this man who was the complete opposite of his father? How is that possible? Well, let’s first look at 2 Kings.

chapter 18, because you might be living in a situation right now where maybe you’re trying to have a right influence over a child in your home. Maybe you’re a single parent. Maybe you’re married, but the other spouse is not saved. And there are conflicting influences going on in your home.

Jaime Luce (09:21.942)
and you’re looking for a way to be the influence. You’re looking for a way to build influence. Whether that’s at home, whether that’s in a relationship, whether that’s at the workplace, whether that’s in ministry, regardless of where it is, I want to show us that not only is influence powerful,

But you need to be a person who is a person of influence. And I’m not talking about you need to be an influencer as in the social media kind of influencer world that we live in right now. This word influence has really been hijacked. In fact, before we start in the scripture, let me give you the definition that I found at looking up Webster’s dictionary.

because it’s, I’m, you know, it changes new dictionaries, give new meanings to things. So I wanted to go get an old version and just see what this word influence had had in its meaning. And according to Webster’s dictionary, influence means to affect or change someone or something in an indirect, but important way.

or to sway or persuade someone into a course of action.

And this is exactly what we’re talking about today. We must be a people who are having an effect on our society. We should be the influencers, not those being influenced. We can see right now our colleges, our elementary schools are full of those who have taken jobs with the sole purpose

Jaime Luce (11:28.446)
of influencing and affecting the course of action that our children take, that our young people take, the mindsets that they have, the ways that they believe their ideologies, the actions they will take to make those be, and then the actions that they want from them in order to squash and quiet

any other voice that might be a dissenting voice from the one that they have an agenda for. So we have to really be so aware that each one of us, each one of our voices is important. We have the ability to change our nation. Hezekiah changed a nation.

In one generation, one man changed an entire nation.

And I want us to see how valuable our words, our stances, our influence is. We can’t be those who sit on the sidelines and do nothing, say nothing, allow evil men to rise up and do whatever they want to do. We’ve seen this in so many of our states already.

You can look at New York and see what has happened in the state of New York. It’s incredible. The change that has happened in that state over the last couple of decades and specifically what’s happening right now. We see this in, gosh, in so many states, they’re more on the East coast, but well, it’s happening in Colorado. It’s happening. it’s definitely in California. It’s happening all over.

Jaime Luce (13:29.198)
And we have got to be a people who understand the authority we carry in the name of Jesus Christ. We have an ability to pray about things, to speak up about things, to take action about things that matter to the heart of God in order to change our nation. You know, the scripture tells us that if my people who are called by my name,

will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven and I will heal their land. All of that is a blueprint for how we can change our nation.

But each of those things means that we must be people who have been influenced by his word, by those who are trustworthy, that holy men of God are in pulpit speaking truth, that there is a mass of us who wants to get on our knees and get on our faces and seek the face of God to make a change.

but it’s gonna take all of us doing the part that’s necessary. We might have people in office right now who are evil men and women with evil agendas, but my friends, they may be the head, but to quote from my Big Fat Greek wedding, we the people are the neck and we can turn it at will. It’s whether we understand that position

and use that position that matters. Okay, let’s go to the scripture. There’s a lot and so I’m not going to be reading all the scripture. My hope is that you will get in and read this for yourself. Like I said, we’re gonna be in the second Kings, second Chronicles and Isaiah. It’s just too much scripture to read. Cause you really want to read the chapters in their entirety and get the whole picture. If you’re reading about a king, read his whole story.

Jaime Luce (15:54.636)
then move to second Chronicles, read his whole story there. And if anybody else has mentioned that we know we can find somewhere else, let’s see if we can read it there so that we get a full picture of the person, of what was going on, what they did right, what they did wrong. That way we know our Bible, we’re not thinking that doesn’t make sense, why did God do that? You you can really run into, especially when you’re reading the Old Testament, you can find

all these places where God is bringing great judgment on things and you could think, man, God is just like so harsh and God is mean and God is ruthless and strong handed. And you know, you can get all these crazy ideas, but if you don’t read the entire thing, for instance, King Uzziah, there’s so much to be read about King Uzziah. And when you read his whole story and you read

If you were to read it just in 2 Kings, you’d think, why did God give him leprosy? But then if you turn around and you read in 2 Chronicles the story, you realize why he got leprosy. Because he turned and didn’t do what God had for him to do and he ended up paying the consequence for it. When you rebel against God, he takes his hands off. You’re turned over to all of the things that everybody else has to deal with. The strong arm of defense that was there for you

is now removed. It’s your choice. It’s not God even having to do anything other than remove himself because you have removed yourself. Well if you’re not with God, if you’re not on God’s side, there are only two sides. You either stand with him or stand in opposition to him and he will defeat his enemies. That’s an awesome God.

You don’t realize how awesome he is. You just can’t take the perspective that everybody is neutral and that God is being mean to neutral people. That’s not Bible. You are either on his side or you are his enemy. There are only two sides. So you don’t get to say, well, I’m, know, I’m, I’m not against God. I just, I just wanted to do what I wanted to do. You know, I just didn’t.

Jaime Luce (18:19.086)
I’m sorry, but that’s just, you would see this easily in your children. If your children were doing things contrary to what you know they should be doing and they’re giving you excuses, you would see right through it. We just tend to not look so critically upon ourselves. We are very self-loving people. We don’t on ourselves. That’s why the scripture can say love your neighbor as yourself. Because truth be told, we care very much about ourself.

We are very selfish people with selfish motives. But if you want to see truth when you’re reading scripture and you want to see when God is delivering judgment, it’s because there is rebellion and you are now an enemy of God. Folks, you want that. You actually want that because when you’re on God’s side, you want him to decimate his enemies. You want him to remove every hindrance. You want him to

change your circumstance and people will be affected by that. So either, you know, it’s like when Joshua was getting ready to cross over the Jordan and the angel appears and Joshua asks him, are you for us or for our enemy? He says, no, I am the angel of the Lord. You need to be on my side. This is not God on your side. We tend to quote that a lot.

You know, God’s on my side. Yeah. That’s not quite right. I’m on God’s side. I’m on God’s side. And when I get on his side, I get all the awesome power available to me. I get his plan. I get his purposes. I get his, his strong arm, his defense, his blessing, his, protection. get all of it when I’m on his side. Well,

This is what we see laid out here. So how again, did Hezekiah, we’re talking about influence, how did Hezekiah get this? Look at chapter, Second Kings chapter. Why did I turn that page?

Jaime Luce (20:37.39)
Sorry, lost my place.

Jaime Luce (20:42.478)
Here we go, chapter 18. Don’t know how I did that. Okay, in chapter 18 it says, now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. Now Ahaz, if you go back and read again, Ahaz was a wicked king. Ahaz did.

all the abominations of the nations that God had delivered them from. And he even caused his sons and daughters to pass through the fire, which means he sacrificed them. A very wicked king. And yet Hezekiah was his son. Look at verse two. He was 25 years old when he became king and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abbey, the daughter

of Zachariah. I did a little digging. Okay, let’s just so that you have context. Let’s also look at second Chronicles chapter 29. And it says has a Kaia became king when he was 25 years old and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zachariah, Zachariah. So Abijah is her full name.

Abbey Abai was her kind of like a nickname, I guess, a shortened name. So same thing, same name, but I looked this up. I wanted to see what her name meant and his mother’s name means Yahweh is my father. Okay, so this is hint number one, Yahweh is my father. Now her husband may have been Ahaz.

And I don’t know how many wives Ahaz had, but her offspring, her son was Hezekiah. And so many times we have, if you read, when it begins to tell you who the next king is, almost always, I think it tells you, and their mother was. So there’s a reason we’re being told that. It’s not insignificant. There’s a reason we’re being told who the mother was.

Jaime Luce (23:08.096)
If you look back all the way to King Ahab, Jezebel, who was the mother in Israel at the time, she was a wicked woman who greatly influenced her husband Ahab and influenced a nation around her. So these mothers are very important. If you look at our lives right now, you have no problem seeing

that the mother has the greater influence during the early years of a child’s life. Not necessarily the influence of their activity and their personality, but what they’re taught and the nurturing that they receive almost always comes from the mother’s side, or at least much more strongly from the mother’s side.

And that’s simply because of the way a woman is wired and the job of the mother during that time. As she gets older, it kind of switches, as the child gets older, it kind of switches to the father. But the influence of those beginning years comes from the mother.

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Jaime Luce (25:21.878)
So Abijah’s influence over her son is hinted at in a couple ways in scripture. One being the meaning of her name, that Yahweh is my father, but also her father was, she was the daughter of Zechariah is what scripture told us, who many scholars believe,

that this same Zechariah was mentioned as what scripture calls quote unquote the faithful witness in Isaiah chapter eight verse two. He was possibly a spiritual counselor to previous kings. This suggests that Hezekiah was raised under the influence of a family that was committed to worshiping God.

And I cannot see without this mother’s influence, without that being a possibility, and these men of God who were associated with his mother, had they not been in his life affecting his life, I don’t see how Hezekiah could have been the man that he was serving God the way that he did. Let’s read a little bit, because I want you to see what this influence

paused in Hezekiah’s life. There were several things he did. And then we’re going to look at what I’m going to kind of give them names of what he did so that we can see how in our own lives that we could be stewarding influence that we can be seeing kind of what the anatomy of what that would look like and outline maybe that we could kind of get a good idea for.

what exactly can I be doing to be that kind of influence not just to my children not just to my family but to a world who desperately needs salvation so let’s look back at chapter 18 we’ll pick up in verse 3 where we left off and he did what was right in the sight of the lord according to all that his father david had done he removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars

Jaime Luce (27:43.084)
Cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that moses had made For until those days the children of israel burned incense to it and called it nehushtan He trusted in the lord god of israel so that after him was none like him among all the kings of juda nor who were before him this is really quite a

really quite a resume that is being spoken of for this man.

Go to verse six. Now it goes to more about that. He prospered wherever he went and he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not Serve him now it goes on to say more about that

But now I want us to jump to second Chronicles and I want you to hear what it says here.

Jaime Luce (29:00.002)
just so you can hear kind of both sides, okay? Because this is the bigger picture. Second Chronicles chapter 29 gives us a much larger view of what all that Hezekiah did. So we read already verse one, let’s go to verse two. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father David had done.

In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. Now he’s talking about that the king who was right before him.

His father had destroyed the temple, tore things apart, built different altars, completely filled it with rubbish and trash. He basically desecrated it and ended up locking the doors, closing it up, not allowing anybody to go in there and worshiping all these other gods in all these other ways. So in the first year of his reign, in the first month, I mean, this was his first order of business, right?

We like to say as Americans when a new president is established, what do they do in their first 100 days? This is what King Hezekiah did in his first 100 days. He opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. Then he brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them in the East square and said to them, hear me Levites. Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers and carry out

the rubbish from the holy place. For our fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him. They have turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord and turned their backs on him. They have also shut up the doors of the vestibule, put out the lamps, and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.

Jaime Luce (31:02.818)
Therefore the wrath of the Lord fell upon Judah and Jerusalem and he has given them up to trouble to desolation and to jeering as you see with your eyes For indeed because of this our fathers have fallen by the sword and our sons our daughters and our wives are in captivity

Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel that his fierce wrath may turn away from us. He’s saying, I want us to come back into covenant with our God. So we have all the blessings that were on his side and we have every good thing that he has for us.

My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that you should minister to him and burn incense. Then these Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites, of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi,

And Azariah the son of Jehalelel, I’m not sure I’m saying all of these right, of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zema, and Eden the son of Joah, and the sons of Elisapham, Shemri, and Jael the sons of Asaph, Zechariah, and Mataniah. There’s Zechariah. So Zechariah is among this group of priests that have been called.

Is it priest or Levi’s? Sorry, I want to make sure I say that right.

Jaime Luce (32:51.456)
Levites they’re the Levites sorry so Zachariah is a Levite so you can see the influence of his mother and his mother’s father okay his grandfather on this side so obviously there was continual teaching being done for him that he was raised knowing the ways of God knowing what was done wrong and what they should have been doing

and knowing that they had brought all this trouble on themselves because of turning away from God. All of this he understood as a young man growing up so that his first order of business is to set all of this a right. So verse 15 says, they gathered their brethren, sanctified themselves and went according to the commandment of the King at the words of the Lord to cleanse the house of the Lord. Okay, now,

He goes on there’s so many things he does here, but they take the commands the king has given them. They do exactly what he asks them to do. So then verse 20 says then king Hezekiah rose early gathered the rulers of the city and went up to the house of the lord and they brought seven bulls even seven rams seven lambs seven male goats for a sin offering for the kingdom for the sanctuary and for juda. Then he commanded the priest the sons of aran to offer them

on the altar to the Lord. So they killed the bulls and the priest received the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. Likewise, they killed the rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar. They also killed the lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar. Then they brought up the male goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly and they laid their hands on them. And the priests killed them and they presented their blood on the altar as a sin offering to make an atonement for all Israel. This is really interesting.

This king understood that not only, because he was king of Judah, but he understood they should never have been two kingdoms. He knew they should have been one kingdom, the way it was with King David and with Solomon. It didn’t fall apart until Solomon’s son, but he knew how it should have been, that they should have been united, that they were God’s people, and all of them

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should have been serving God together. So he makes an atonement has them make an atonement for all Israel for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering be made for all Israel. It gets even better that this king is doing such righteous acts and is getting ready to reestablish and have the Passover. And when they do this,

He’s reestablishing then the feasts of God and he’s reestablishing the ways of God. He’s reestablishing the honor and the glory of God and his how, mean, he’s tearing down everything that looks contrary to that. But this man understood influence and he’s not only wanting to influence Judah, but he wants to influence all of Israel. He’s hoping that he can affect

the entire nation, the Northern and the Southern. He wants everyone to be serving God. He understands all the trouble that they’ve gone through was because they stood in opposition to God. So what does he do? I love this.

Not only does he get all the musicians together, I’m going to skip kind of through this because that’s a lot there to read, but he gets all of the instruments getting played, everything that he knew that David, King David had done. He wanted the priests and the Levites to be ready and do all of that so that when they came to the house of God and when they’ve got ready to have their feast,

The trumpets would blow, you’d hear all the music playing, they would worship God, they would honor God.

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So let’s look at verse.

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Let’s go to verse 27. Then Hezekiah commanded them to offer the burnt offering on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord also began with the trumpets and with the instruments of David, King of Israel. So all the assembly worshiped. So he’s already, it’s not just the ones he’s called to it. Now it’s all the people, all the assembly worshiped. Excuse me. The singer sang and the trumpeter sounded.

All this continued until the burnt offering was finished and when they had finished offering the king and all who were present with him bowed and worshiped so they are truly reestablishing that the Lord is their God and they are going to worship and honor his name.

Moreover, King Hezekiah and the leaders commanded the Levites to sing praise to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and they bowed their heads and worshiped. Then Hezekiah answered and said, now that you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord, come near, bring the sacrifices and

Thank offerings into the house of the Lord. So the assembly brought in the sacrifices. Thank offerings and as many as were of a willing heart, they brought the burnt offerings. So then what happens is they began to just bring all the things that belong to God back to God. All that tells all the tithes, all the offerings, the people with the free will heart are bringing all the things that belong to God and reestablishing their covenant with God. Go to chapter 30.

It says and Hezekiah sent all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters. Listen to this wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel. So he’s sending not only Judah, but he’s going to send in letters to Ephraim. He’s sending letters to Manasseh for the king and his leaders and all the assembly in Jerusalem had agreed

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to keep the Passover in the second month. Now they couldn’t do it when they were supposed to, but they were gonna do it as soon as they could, because they had to clean everything up and everyone had to be sanctified and cleansed and made ready to do this. Then if we go to verse five, so they resolved to make a proclamation throughout all Israel from Beersheba to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem.

since they had not done it for a long time in the prescribed manner. He’s wanting everyone to come. Listen to this. This is so beautiful, his heart. Then the runners went throughout all Israel and Judah. He sent runners. He was trying to compel them. He was calling, putting out the, you know,

What would you call it? Sending out the runners with a loud voice and they would be proclaiming that Hezekiah is going to be doing a Passover. We’re going to reinstitute a Passover. Come, you should come. You need to be a part of this. The invitation was going out. The influence to affect the people was going out. Modern day in the church, we could call this evangelism. Send it out to all who can hear, who will hear.

And many times, you know, I mentioned at the beginning of this that there’s really just a remnant usually. And yet Hezekiah’s heart was for all of them. If you call yourself by the name of the Lord, if you are Israel, he’s calling them back to the right place that God had ordained for them, to their right place, their right station, their right obedience, their right convictions, their right

covenant to be back in covenant with God. The runners went throughout all Israel and Judah with the letters from the king and his leaders and spoke accordingly to the command of the king. Children of Israel return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. Then he will return to the remnant of you who have escaped the hand of the kings of Assyria.

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and do not be like your fathers and your brethren who trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers so that he gave them up to desolation as you see. Now do not be stiff-necked as your fathers were but yield yourselves to the Lord and enter his sanctuary which he has sanctified forever and serve the Lord your God that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you for if you return

to the Lord, your brethren and your children will be treated with compassion by those who lead them captive so that they may come back to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn his face from you if you return to him.

Sadly, it says that so the runners passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed at them and mocked them. Nevertheless, some from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. You know, sometimes being a faithful witness of the Lord

and continually trying to reach people can feel a lot like one of those telemarketing jobs. And you just hear, no, no, no, no, no. And you’re mocked and whatever, you know. I don’t like them either. But I’m just saying it can feel like that. That there might be some, you’re working for just a few of those to say, yes, you’re looking for the some, but has Akaya got some? Though they were mocked by a large.

from people who had completely turned their backs on God, though they were God’s people. There were some who did come. They humbled themselves, it says, and came to Jerusalem. Also, the hand of God was on Judah to give them singleness of heart to obey the command of the king and the leaders at the word of the Lord.

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God did something miraculous when they all humbled themselves and came together. God gave them singleness of heart. What does that mean? He put them in total unity. They all had one mind, one heart to say with all of our heart, we will come back and serve the Lord. I mean, talk about a great revival. Talk about a great return.

a mass group of people humbling themselves and coming back to God. That is a beautiful thing. And I can’t help but think that it was his mother and his grandfather who helped put this in him, that they used their influence to reach not just this man, not just their son or grandson.

but to reach a nation, to change a nation.

So let’s look at this. What did Hezekiah value that he was taking those values and instilling those values back into the people? Or even better yet, what did his mother value and her father value that they put into Hezekiah? These are the things we see through reading.

the stories of Hezekiah, the history of Hezekiah and his reign, what did they pour into him and then what did he pour into the people? Because if we can see that, then we can turn around and use that in our own lives. So I wrote down seven things that I noticed here. Number one, Hezekiah valued the ways of God. He didn’t speak just about

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what he remembered from the latest king closest to him that might have done right by God and call it well the culture nowadays does this you know it we yeah we used to do that you know how many times i hear that in the church we used to do this in the church but now we do this it he went all the way back he went all the way back to the ways of god that king david

had shared with them and established and what King David had given the people was based off of what Moses had given them directly by God. So Hezekiah is saying we have to value everything that God values. Every commandment he’s given, we need to value that. The way that God wants this done. The way we take care of the house of God. The way we bring our tithes and our offerings.

the way that we care for one another and extend a hand of mercy to those who are on the outside. This is what he did to Israel. He extended a hand of mercy. He said, tell them that God is merciful and gracious and wants to call them in. He cared about the ways of God to emulate the ways of God, to walk in the ways of God, the best that he knew how. Number two, he valued the house of God. First thing on the agenda, fix up the house of God.

Make sure it’s clean and sanctified and it’s been repaired and everything is working as it should be. And everyone is bringing everything they should bring in order to make this house a place of abundance that it overflows with the offerings and the sacrifices that we are supposed to bring to it. That it’s operating at a hundred percent capacity that the priests and the Levites are sanctifying themselves and working for God, cleansed and ready.

with one mind to serve God with all their heart.

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Number three, the things of God. Not only when he went into the house of God, did he tell them to clean out everything and make the repairs. He cared about the things of God. He cared about the articles that were in the house. He wanted everything that was in the house to be repaired. He wanted everything that was used in the house to be top notch. He wanted all of them to be in their pristine condition and used regularly for God.

You know, there’s a scripture that says to honor the Lord with your possessions. Those are your things. If we have a good way to look at the blessing of God and the things that he gives us is, are do these things, are they a distraction to my walk with the Lord or am I using them for the Lord? When my husband and I bought our home, we had owned

had a home in Corona, California. And when we bought the home, we knew that it was a gift from the Lord. We knew the home was a gift from the Lord. And so was the home that we had moved from. But we knew when we moved there, God had a very specific purpose. We didn’t know what the purpose was yet, but we had a singleness of mind and heart that our home was gonna be used for the glory of God. That He was just

giving us this home to steward, but this home was his and it was to be used for his purpose. Little did we know that the Lord would call us to start a church in our home. And we had church in our home for two years. I mean, dismantled the house every week, every weekend, cleaned it and dismantled it so we could set it up for church.

take out furniture, we’d set up chairs, we had a sound system, we had all the instruments, we had rooms that were for a children’s church and nursery care, we had ushers, we had people who were parking attendants. I mean, we had, we did it all. We did it all just in our home every week for two years while we looked for a building. And then once we had a building, had to wait in that would took a year. Then the second year we is, had to build out the building. So

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This was a long process. Little did we know we had baptisms in the pool in that house. And the pool was a miracle that God did. Everything about that home, everything about those possessions that we had, they were not a distraction. We didn’t stay home and not go to church. We didn’t stay in the backyard and use the pool and not go to church. No, we used those things for God. Those articles, those things.

were used for God. I want you to understand Hezekiah understood that the things of God, just the articles, he cared about all the articles in the house, everything. had singleness of mind, singleness of heart to put everything in covenant with God. And I guarantee you, you receive the blessing of God.

on whatever it is that you are doing for God with singleness of heart. God takes care of those things. He provides for those things. He makes a way for those things. We were never so blessed as when we were blessed with how God took care of us while we were taking care of his business. It was amazing what God did. It was for a season. It was for a time. But I have to remind myself

matter what I have, no matter what comes into my possession, no matter what things I have, if they are a distraction, if that boat is a distraction, that’s a problem. But if that boat is a means of ministry, you take people out, you bless people, you know, you’re, you’re using it for the glory of God. It’s okay to have things. It’s okay to be blessed. It’s okay to have fun.

And not every single time do you use it. Does it have to have somebody on it that you’ve been witnessing to? I’m just simply helping us get some perspective. Honor the Lord with your possessions. Care about the things. Not just the house of God, but the things. All of it. All the things. All the stuff. Number four. Hezekiah valued the offerings of God. He established immediately.

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that everyone was to bring in all the offerings for all the tithes. In fact, I should read you some of that. We had skipped over that, but let me read that to you.

I think it’s in verse 31. Let me go there and see. Then Hezekiah answered and said, this is chapter 29 of second Chronicles. Then Hezekiah answered and said, now that you’ve consecrated yourselves to the Lord, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the Lord. So the assembly brought in sacrifices and thank offerings and as many as were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings.

and number of the burnt offerings which the assembly brought was 70 bulls, 100 rams, and 200 lambs, all of these for burnt offerings for the Lord. The consecrated things were 600 bulls and 3000 sheep, but the priests were too few so that they could not skin all the burnt offerings. Therefore the brethren, the Levites helped them until the work was ended and until the other priests had sanctified themselves for the Levites were more diligent.

and sanctifying themselves than the priests. That’s pretty amazing. Also the burnt offerings were in abundance with the fat of the peace offerings and with the drink offerings for every burnt offering so the service of the Lord was set in order.

Let me find you the other part where he says it because it was so good

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It might have been in Second Kings. Let me go back because I want to I want you to see this.

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goodness, I don’t want to keep you a long time and not have it for you.

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Well, I don’t see it here, so you’re gonna have to make sure and read it for yourselves. He literally talks about that they have brought so much, it’s in heaps.

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here we go. Chapter 31. Sorry, it took me so long. Chapter 31, the reforms of Hezekiah. Now when all of this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke all the sacred pillars in pieces, cut down the wooded images and threw down the high places and the altars from all Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned to their own cities, every man to his possession.

jump down to.

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Number four verse four moreover. He commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to contribute support for the priests and the Levites that they might devote themselves to the law of the Lord and as soon as the commandment was circulated the children of Israel brought in abundance the first fruits of grain and wine oil and honey and of all the produce of the field and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything

Everything and the children of Israel and Judah who dwelt in the cities of Judah brought the tithe of oxen and sheep also the tithe of the holy things which were consecrated to the Lord their God they laid in heaps In the third month they began laying them in heaps and they finished in the seventh month Everybody was bringing everything they had and it was piling up piling up piling up so much so that Hezekiah told

priests and the Levites. Okay. Now you need to build storehouses to put all this stuff in because they understood that because Hezekiah valued the ways of God, the house of God, the things of God, the offerings of God, which included taking care of the priests and the Levites. He specifically gave the command. said, listen, I want them to devote themselves. We are all in one mind and one accord here.

about serving the Lord and coming back into proper covenant with him. And so these priests and Levites who have agreed they’re coming back into covenant, they are going to give themselves 100 % to the study of God’s word, to God’s laws, to fulfilling God’s commandments. So in order to do that, we need to make sure that we are in covenant by bringing all of our offerings and all of our ties of everything so that

They are taken care of and they literally told the king that we have everything we need and in abundance They they had they were well taken care of Now again, I’m giving you the things that he valued so that we can look at these in our own life so that we can live in the same blessing and protection and Covenant that has a kya did Number five he valued the feasts of the Lord

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What does that mean? He valued the times that when God says celebrate, celebrate when God says bring an offering, bring an offering. When God says it’s time to gather in, gather in what this is one of those things that by the spirit of God, we live our lives now because we don’t operate in the same way, but we have to be those who are willing to do what God says to do when God says to do it.

that we honor God’s times, that we time by, we honor God by time. Are you giving God your best with your time? Are you giving God, you know, an hour on Sunday, but you don’t talk to him the rest of the week, you don’t spend time with him, you don’t think about him, you don’t thank him, worship him, bring offering to him?

We have to think about this. We have to understand that our lives, our times, the Bible says, our times are in His hands. Our time has been already ordained from our first breath to our last breath. In fact, King David says that he said, teach me to number my days. Help me to understand my time and what I’ve got left so that I can use it the way you wanted me to use it.

King Hezekiah valued the feasts of the Lord. Number six, we talked about this already, but he valued evangelism. He understood the need for repentance, that we were to come to bring our offerings of repentance, but that we were to evangelize and call others, come, come to the house of God, join us in serving him, come and be a part of the covenant of God.

That should be a high value in our hearts to our family first and to those around us to our sphere of influence. And number seven, he valued the word of God. In second Chronicles chapter 32, verses seven and eight it says, now this is when the enemy Sennacherib, probably not saying his name right, but Sennacherib,

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of Syria has come and he’s come up against a Judah. He’s already defeated Israel and he’s come up against Judah and he’s making all kinds of slanderous comments about God and about serving God. I mean, he’s just, he says the most awful things and he’s trying to put fear in their hearts and he wants them to bow to him so he could take them captive and take their land and all their goods. And in verse seven, this is what the king had said.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid nor dismayed before the king of Assyria, nor before all the multitude that is with him. For there are more with us than with him. With him is the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.

and the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. Now, why this is so beautiful is because what we read here sounds an awful lot like what we’ve already heard from the prophet, Eli Shua, when he said there are more with us than are with them, he knew his word. We’re talking about Hezekiah valuing the word of God.

He was taught the principles and the commandments of God. He was taught all these things growing up by his mother and by his grandfather and all of, regardless of the influence of the bad that he lived in, regardless of the conditions that he was raised under with his father, regardless of the things that he heard and saw his father do and say, regardless of what his father may or may not have had him have to be a part of. Hezekiah knew the word.

And he would say things that were said in scripture before. So when he says, strong and courageous, we have heard that how many times? We know Joshua was strong, be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous. And now Hezekiah is relying on the word of God to bring the same encouragement that the fathers before him who did right had commanded. Be strong and courageous. Then it says in verse eight,

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That with him is the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us to fight our battles. This is something I guarantee you that he was familiar with the Psalms with King David Psalms because it talks about when he was reestablishing, reestablishing the Passover that he made sure that they did this. They sang the songs that King David had wrote and that also ASAP the seer and also

mentioned one other person that the things that they had written down that these were the things that they would say and record. So obviously he was familiar with them. So I wrote down several of the Psalms that I want to read to you that I’m sure I mean this is my speculation but I’m sure because they were scripture and that because he was wanting them to do these things that he was familiar with these. The first one is found in Psalms 20 verse 7 which says some trust in chariots

And summon horses, but we trust in the name of the lord our god Doesn’t that sound like that? With him is the arm of the flesh David what I was always talking about you don’t lean on the arm of the flesh. We we lean on the strength in the arm of our god Psalm 56 verses three and four says in god whose word I praise in god I trust I shall not be afraid What can flesh do to me?

Psalm 146 verses three through five says, do not put your trust in princes, in human beings who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground. On that very day, their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. Psalm 118,

Versus eight nine says it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. And here he was, this is what he was standing against. He was teaching them. These have come against us. These Kings from other nations, these princes from other nations are coming and he’s saying, don’t trust them. Don’t trust in princes. Don’t trust in humans, trust in God.

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Psalm 147 verses 10 and 11 says, his pleasure, meaning God’s pleasure, is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior. The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. And Psalm 44, six and seven says, I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory.

but you give us victory over our enemies. I wanted to encourage you with this word to know that when the enemy is fighting against you, this is still a time of influence. When you’re being fought, still stand in your position of influence with those around you to be like Hezekiah and let your words encourage them.

to stand strong as well. We need to be binding together, to be strong together. You know, the fight and the war against him got so severe that he went into the house of God and cried out to God for help because the enemy was so strong against them. And the word of Isaiah came to them and the word of Isaiah was, to Hezekiah,

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me find it for you in second Kings.

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Chapter 19.

said verse 6 and Isaiah said to them Thus you shall say to your master because these men came to Isaiah saying that the king is worried and Is asking God for deliverance. Okay, so this is what Isaiah says thus says the Lord Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me

He says, don’t worry about how ugly their words are. Don’t worry about how strong you think they are. Don’t worry about these men. Don’t worry about your enemy. Somebody needs to hear that today. Don’t worry about what your enemy is saying and doing. You need to trust not in man, but in the arm of the God you serve. Trust in his strength. Verse seven, surely I will send a spirit upon him.

and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” And he did. He actually did. He heard a rumor, he went back, had to deal with other things and when he got back his own sons killed him once he got home. God’s word is true. God will do exactly what he says he will do.

Then in Isaiah, let me go, I lost my place. can’t believe it.

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Leave.

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we go. Isaiah 37. I wanted you to hear this because if you’re in a battle today, we can talk about influence and we could talk about standing strong. And sometimes when you’re in the battle and it’s so overwhelming, you just feel like you have no strength left. You feel like you have no influence. You feel like no one listens to you. No one cares. And you need to know that God does care. God sees God cares. And

This is what was beautiful about the relationship that King Hezekiah had with Isaiah and that Isaiah was in, unity with him in prayer with him. In fact, I believe it’s in second Chronicles. It’s either in second Kings or second Chronicles. One of the verses says that they together were, went before the Lord and the house of God. So they would, they would go together and seek God together. Isaiah was the, the

Word of God to Hezekiah and yet both knew in order to hear the word you have to get before God and each plays their part and has their part. That’s the same with us with our influence. Each one of us has our part that we play, but you need to go to God and you need to seek God for the answers and you need to trust God for your deliverance. You need to trust God to bring the answer. Don’t trust in men. Don’t trust in what the power of man can do. Don’t think that

doing it man’s way is the smarter way is the more, know, it’s interesting because the world’s ways, they’re so sneaky, they’re so conniving, just how the enemy was in the garden. And yet we tend to think that being sneaky means you’re smarter. You can’t be any smarter than the God of the universe who knows it all and can add his word, change anything, do anything. In fact, with his enemies,

God said specifically of this enemy that he’d put a hook in his jaw and pull him right back to where he was. And that’s exactly what he did. That’s exactly what he did. That was part of the prophetic word that he gave. But it says in Isaiah chapter 37, all the words that Sennacherib

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and kings of Assyria had sent, they not only said them to the people at the wall to scare them, but he wrote them down in a letter to make sure that the king had the letter and could read for himself with no misunderstanding of the threats he was making and the fear he was trying to give. Verse 14 says, and Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord.

Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim, you are God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see. And hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach

the living God. Hezekiah understood, yes, he says that he’s coming against us to bring fear in us, but he’s coming against you. His words were blaspheming against you, Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them.

Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord, you alone.

This is what we need to value. The word of God, the ways of God, the power of God, that we can trust that if we bring our requests to our God, he hears and he sees and he answers. Don’t give up until, don’t give up and don’t stop until the answer comes.

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That’s why the scripture says that you will reap if you faint not. Sometimes there’s a waiting period. Sometimes it takes longer than we want it to take. But God does all things well. He makes all things beautiful in his time. So we honor God’s times. We stay true to his message. We stay in covenant with our God.

We value his house. We value the things that belong to God. We value our offerings to him. We value those who are working and, and, and laboring for the word of God. We value the feast and value and evangelism and repentance. We value the word of God. Maybe today you need to take this very word and stand on this word and say, Lord, if you did it for King Hezekiah, you’ll do it for me.

If you did it for him, you are no respecter of persons. You will do it for me. You will get rid of my enemies before me. You will cause these who taught and torment me to be a hook put on their mouth and you rip them back to where they came from. They are that they can no longer stand against me and spew out their hateful musings and the things that they want to cause fear in my heart. Stand on the word of God.

Let your faith be secure that you are in covenant with a God who cannot break covenant.

who cannot break covenant. is just, he is awesome. He is better than you think he is. He is better than you think he is.

Jaime Luce (01:14:55.522)
This God who created everything has the power that is necessary to bring about a great deliverance, a great turnaround, a great provision for your life. Whatever you have need of today, He is the answer. He is the answer.

I just submit to you today that you would take some time to think about what you’ve been valuing.

What have you allowed to influence you? Or are you influencing others? Are you valuing what you need to value in order to keep in position, to stand and to be a voice for whatever God is wanting to do and what God is saying? To encourage faith and strength in those around you?

Jaime Luce (01:15:56.31)
Each of us is called to that. Each of us is called to be an influencer. Each of us is called to stand in faith and to stand on the word of God. Each of us is called to go and make disciples of all men. That we are to value his home, the house of God, to care for those who give their lives in service for it. To know what,

matters to God, to care for the orphans and the widows, to be a strength for those who are weak. We want to strengthen the feeble knees. We want to lift people up. We wanted to encourage you to be strong and courageous. You can do it. You will make it. God will not desert you. He will not leave you. He promises to never leave us or no and never forsake us. We just need to stay in covenant with him. I encourage you.

shore it all up, shore up all the weak places, shore it all up and get single-minded, singular focused on your walk with the Lord and watch what he will do for you. I’d like to pray for you. Father, I just thank you for your word. I thank you for the power that you have made available to us by your word, that it is the bread of life. It is what feeds us. It is what nourishes us.

It’s what gives us the eyesight to know what to pray and how to come at these things that we’re dealing with. Father, I pray your encouragement right now to each one because of your word, that they would feel your strength right now, that they would feel your encouragement, that they would know that you do hear, you do see, and you do answer prayer, that you will not leave them.

that you will be right there. You have given us your Holy Spirit to be with us as the helper and our constant companion to lead us, to guide us, to speak truth to us. Father, you are the light that shines bright in darkness, that no matter how dark the darkness is, your light shines bright, showing us what we need to see and bringing light to those dark places.

Jaime Luce (01:18:24.75)
Father, for everyone who is fighting a battle, for every mother who is trying to raise their child in the fear and in the admonition of the Lord, that you would empower their influence. You would give them the words to say. They would know their times and moments, know how to deposit, know how to train up, know how to teach. Father, that you would send wisdom.

wisdom by your word, wisdom by ministers, wisdom by the Holy Spirit, wisdom to know what to say, when to say it, how to say it, to have understanding of what they read in your word. Illuminate to them what they do not understand. Bring fresh revelation where there has been death and no life. Father, we ask you to make all of us your influencers to take back

our nation to stand in strength knowing that with you God if we are with you that there is more with us than there is with them and that you will bring the victory if we will stand in obedience father that we will see where we must humble ourselves that we will do according to your word we will humble ourselves we will turn from our wicked ways

You will then hear our cries. You will heal our land. Help us to be those who carry the torch of faith, who stand in the face of adversity, that we do not give up. We do not give in. We walk as influencers for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Be with your people today. Strengthen them. Encourage them. In Jesus name we

Amen.

Jaime Luce (01:20:21.164)
I really do hope that this has been encouraging to you, instructional for you, and that you would be encouraged to read for yourself the accounts of King Hezekiah. Let the word.

Bring about real change in your hearts. Let the eating of the word of God bring nourishment. You know, the word also washes us. It cleanses us. We are to be washed by the reading of the word. We are to be cleansed by those words. We are able to know where we have maybe gotten off course and get back right where we’re supposed to be.

Just like Hezekiah had said to those who humbled themselves from the other regions to say, come, God will be merciful. God will be gracious. He is always merciful and gracious. That we are to hope, as the scripture said, in his unfailing love, knowing that he’s not finished yet. He’s not finished yet. This isn’t the end. God will bring about the victory.

Thanks so much for taking time with me today. I’d love to hear from you. If you have any prayer requests or praise reports and you’d like to share those with me, you can go to my website at JaimeLuce.com or send me an email at mail at JaimeLuce.com. That’s J-A-I-M-E-L-U-C-E. Thanks again for being with me today. We’ll see you next time. Bye bye.