1 FACING CRISES IN LIFE WITH PRAYER 2 KINGS 20:1-11 SERMON In 2010 33 Chilean miners were buried by an explosion that left them 2,000 feet underground for over three months! In his book, Deep Down Dark, Hector Tobar discusses the important role prayer played for the miners in this crisis. On August 5 th, a Christian man named Don Jose Henriquez turned to a fellow miner named Mario and whispered, God is the only way out of this. Before the miners Mario announced, Don Jose, we know you are a Christian man and we need you to lead us in prayer. Will you? So, he prayed. We aren t the best men, but Lord have pity on us. It s a simple statement but it strikes several of the men hard. Victor Segovia knows he drinks too much. Victor Zamora is too quick to anger. Pedro Cortez thinks about the poor father he s been to his young daughter: He left the girl s mother and he hasn t even done the basic fatherly thing of visiting his little girl, even though he knows his absence is inflicting a lasting hurt on her. Don Jose continues with his prayer, Jesus Christ our Lord, let us enter the sacred throne of your grace. Consider this moment of difficulty ours. We are sinners and we need you. We want you to make us stronger and help us in our hour of need. There s nothing we can humanly do without your help. We need you to take charge of this situation. Please, Lord. Take charge of this. God did take charge! God enabled rescuers to locate the trapped miners and after 69 days of anguish and very little food, every single miner was saved! I want to speak today about facing crises in life with prayer. You could be enduring some kind of crisis in your life today: a serious health issue or the prospects of losing a loved one or a financial setback or the rejection of a good friend or losing a job. In our biblical text today, King Hezekiah experienced a life threatening illness, a true crisis in his life! Who was King Hezekiah? His name appears frequently in scripture: in 2 Kings, 1 st and 2 nd Chronicles, Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea and Micah. Hezekiah served as one of the few decent, righteous and faithful kings of the eighth century B.C. In Hezekiah s day, Israel existed as two separate nations: the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, which Hezekiah ruled. Assyria, the reigning superpower of the day, conquered the northern kingdom of Israel during Hezekiah s fourth year on the throne of Judah. Turn back in your Bible to 2 Kings 18:1-3. In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. When the text speaks of David being his father, it doesn t mean David was his actual father. It means he came from the lineage of David. The text tells in vs.1 that Hezekiah s father was Ahaz. The sickness that struck King Hezekiah stemmed from a boil. Look in vs.7 Then Isaiah said, Prepare a poultice of figs. They did so and applied it to the boil and he recovered. A
2 poultice is like a compress one would apply to a sore or a boil. Figs were believed to have medicinal qualities in the ancient world. Boils can, though rarely, develop into serious infections, especially if the infection enters the blood stream. King Hezekiah s boil must have been serious for it to threaten his life! King Hezekiah faced death in the prime of his life. King Hezekiah was thirty-nine years old when he fell ill. Even for the ancient world, thirty-nine years was not considered old. Hezekiah had lived a good, wholesome life. He had instituted sweeping reform in Judah: He had ordered the cutting down of images of the Asherah, which were wooden figures, idols worshipped by the Canaanites and Assyrians; he had removed and destroyed the bronze image of a snake in the Temple reputed to have been made by Moses himself; Hezekiah had remained true, loyal and faithful to Yahweh!! We read about his godly character in the text. Look in chp 18:5-6, Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. As we read through these chapters, we never discover why God told Hezekiah he would die. I m reminded of Job, a good and righteous man who suffered tremendous loss, grief and anguish. Job never discovered why he suffered either. Isn t that often true in our experience? Like Hezekiah or Job, many of us live life according to what the Bible teaches. Suddenly, one day we suffer an accident or we begin suffering from a chronic illness or the company we worked for years decides to let us go or something similar occurs. What do we learn from this story of facing crises in our lives? 1.Develop the habit of praying! Praying can and should become a habit! We often hear about the bad habits: texting while driving, smoking cigarettes, biting our fingernails, etc. But, we can develop good habits too like attending worship regularly, getting regular exercise, not over-eating, and prayer. Consider King Hezekiah. The Jews had not been able to celebrate the Passover feast for a long time because so many of the priests were not ritually clean. Hezekiah prayed for these priests in 2 Chronicles 30:18 But Hezekiah prayed for them saying, May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God-the Lord, the God of his fathers-even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary. And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people. This prayer occurred before King Hezekiah s life threatening illness. Hezekiah had developed the habit of praying in non-critical situations. So, prayer was practiced as a natural part of his life, an immediate response to concerns, needs, problems that arose in his country and life. So, when Isaiah the prophet made his surprise announcement that he would not recover from his illness, King Hezekiah prayed!!
3 Here s something to remember: if you want to make prayer your first response in a crisis, make it your response in non-critical situations first! Then, when those times of crisis interrupt the natural course of your life abruptly, your first response will be prayer! I believe many of you have grown a lot in developing the habit of prayer. Twenty years ago it would have been strange to see people after church holding hands or putting an arm on a shoulder and praying with someone after a worship service. Now, I see it almost every Sunday!! Just last Sunday out on our patio after the worship service I saw two women holding hands with their heads bowed praying. If you haven t developed the habit of praying, do so! We also observe in the text that we should: 2. Pray fervently! When Isaiah told Hezekiah he would die, Hezekiah felt terrible but he didn t wallow in self-pity. Do you have a tendency to grovel in self-pity when a personal crisis strikes? Do you feel sorry for yourself; tell yourself you re just no good, that what s happening is due to your unworthiness, mistake and failures? Do you try to cover up your horrible feelings with alcohol or drugs? Maybe you get depressed and shrink into a shell? What did Hezekiah do after receiving his shocking news of imminent death? He prayed fervently! Look in vs.2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, Remember O Lord how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Note how Hezekiah didn t deny his feelings. Troubled and upset, he prayed to the Lord and he prayed fervently! I love the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. In his third story, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, King Caspian has set sail to locate his father s friends who had been missing a long time. After many months on the high seas, King Caspian and his crew sailed into a dark space that never experienced daylight. They learn from a wild-eyed, flustered man who swims to them for help that an island exists nearby in which dreams actually become true. Quickly, the men on board the Dawn Treader try to retreat and return to the daylight but they don t remember their way back. Panic fills their hearts! In this desperate state of crisis, Lucy the young heroine prays to Aslan for help. Remember, Aslan functions as the Christ figure in the Narnia tales. Lucy prayed fervently, Aslan, Aslan, if ever you loved us at all, send us help now (pg.159) Soon an albatross appeared, circled the boat and spoke words of encouragement to Lucy. Lucy believed she heard the voice of Aslan through the Albatross! Soon, the Dawn Treader sailed into the daylight and the crew were saved from eternal darkness and an island where dreams actually became true. When you encounter crises in your life, pray fervently! Pray with your whole heart! Let the Lord know what matters to you! 3. Our heartfelt prayers can affect God s actions
4 God told Hezekiah to get his house in order because he would soon perish. After Hezekiah prayed his fervent prayer, God changed his mind and granted him fifteen more years of life. Look in vs. 5-6a Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, This is what the Lord, the God of your father David says, I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life. It would be wrong to preach that prayer changes God s plans. Prayer cannot change God s sovereign plan for the ages. Jesus initiated the Kingdom of God 2000 years ago and this kingdom awaits its consummation. Jesus will come again in glory one day and establish a new heaven and a new earth. Our prayers cannot change this sovereign plan. But prayer can affect God s actions. Do you remember what happened when Moses received the Ten Commandments? Aaron remained with the people and he led the people in melting down their gold and fashioning a golden calf to worship. God observed this idolatrous display and ordered Moses down, off the mountain. God s anger with His people burned fiercely! He told Moses he would destroy them! But Moses begged God for mercy! He asked the Lord to forgive the people s sins. The Lord listened to Moses prayer and changed his mind. Moses prayer affected God s actions significantly! Heartfelt prayer can affect God s actions. As you struggle with the crisis you might be experiencing today, remember that your fervent, heartfelt prayer can affect God s actions. If God has the power to change his mind and grant Hezekiah fifteen more years of life, if God has the power to relent after threatening his people with destruction after creating a golden calf, God has the power to help you deal with your crisis! 4.Remember that God can use people to communicate the answer to our prayers. Though Hezekiah prayed to God and God changed his mind to let him live an additional fifteen years, God communicated his answer through Isaiah, the prophet. God can and often does use people to communicate his answer to our fervent prayers. Last February Sally and I hosted Jeff and Cindy Jeremiah for several days. Jeff is the head dude of our denomination. His official title is Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. I respect Jeff as a man, a brother in Christ and as our head dude. During our time together, he asked me how I was doing and I had an opportunity to share my concerns. I told him we were going to be participating in the Church Revitalization process and also trying to get our church prepared to start another church. I also told him I was exhausted. Sally and I had been praying a lot about both of these projects. I believe God sent Jeff last February to inform me of His will. Before I tell you what he said to me, you need to know that our denomination has a deep passion and burden to plant new
5 churches! Reputable studies have demonstrated time and again that the best way to reach unchurched people is through planting new churches. After he heard and saw me, Jeff told me, prophetically, Larry, why don t you shelve planting the new church project and concentrate on church revitalization? You can always return to planting the new church later. When I heard him say this I looked at him in shock! For the six years we ve been a part of this denomination all we ve heard about is the importance of planting new churches and now, the head dude of our denomination has just told me to shelve the idea for a while! So, I believe that God spoke to me through Jeff. I got my answer about planting the new church through Jeff. Realize that God can use people to answer your prayers! Be open and sensitive to God speaking to you through the voice of one of His servants. There s a flip side to this as well: You could be the person God uses to answer another person s prayer. As I close today I d like to invite you to come up for prayer, whether or not you re dealing with a crisis. You might desire prayer for a loved one. Or, you re anticipating something coming up that you re worried about. Please feel free to come forward. Pastor Richard and I have oil, if you would like to be anointed with it. Elders and prayer team people please get up out of your seats and be available for prayer!