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[0:00] prayer coming up and I'll say more about that later. At the end of our service today we'll have an opportunity to to prayerfully dedicate ourselves to God for the year ahead to be used by him to be to be grown by him to be equipped by him and we'll have an opportunity for each one of us to to receive prayer for blessing and equipping for the year ahead and really encourage us all to to make the most of that opportunity to be prayed for. As we wait on God now let's let's prepare ourselves to seek his face and let's turn to him in prayer. We'll just have a moment of quiet first and then I'll pray.

[0:35] Lord we come to you at the start of 2023 just aware of our own weakness of our own failings our own undeservedness of having anything to do with you but we thank you that you welcome us.

[1:11] You welcome us today, you welcome us every day, you welcome us by your grace, by your mercy, you welcome us into your presence and you fill us with joy and peace and with everything that we need and so much more. We turn to you now our God, our Lord who reigns forever.

[1:30] We wait for you and we lift up our praise to you in Jesus name, amen. Let's stand, we're going to sing together as we wait on God and lift up his name, strength will rise.

[1:41] strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord.

[2:08] strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord. Be your God, we will wait on the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord, We will wait on the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord, I will wait on the Lord, we will wait on the Lord, we will wait on the Lord, we will wait on the Lord.

[2:20] forever you are the everlasting god the everlasting god you do not you e based oner oh you reign forever a whole a strong believer you are the everlasting god the everlasting god you do not

[4:03] He'll comfort those in need. He'll lift us upon which my King of the Lord.

[4:15] As we wait upon the Lord. We'll wait upon the Lord. As we wait upon the Lord.

[4:30] We'll wait upon the Lord. Amen. Do please sit down. And Judy's going to share some thoughts about prayer with us.

[4:41] Thanks, Judy. Thanks, Andrew. Well, as you already heard from Andrew. A focus in our church over the next few weeks is going to be on prayer.

[4:51] And we're going to be looking at different types of praying. Different ways we can pray. And in our week of prayer. We will be actively using some of those ways to pray as well.

[5:01] So I thought we'd sing a song. Which might help us. Some of you will know this song. It's a bit old. So I remember singing it many years ago.

[5:12] And I have to do a word of explanation first. So first of all, I'm going to show you this. I was going to take it out of the case. Mine's in a purple case. There we go. This is a mobile phone.

[5:24] Who has a mobile phone? Or knows somebody who has a mobile phone? Okay. So a mobile phone could do lots of different things. Would you like to just call out something that you know you can do with your mobile phone? Or somebody else's mobile phone that you borrow?

[5:35] Sorry? Make a call. Make a call. That is a very unique way of using your phone, Gary. Thank you. Make a call. What else can you use your mobile phone for?

[5:48] You can get a song on it. Yeah, you can listen to music. So if you put your hand up, then maybe I can just... Yeah. You can watch YouTube on it. Yeah. Nick?

[5:59] You can send a text to somebody. Yeah, Andy? I'm a picture. You can take pictures. Exactly. Anybody play games? Yeah, Jane?

[6:10] Tells you where I'm lost. Yeah, exactly. Tells you where you are, but you're lost. Yeah, sat down. Helen? You can do that. You can colour. Oh, that's a new one. I haven't done that. Ryan? I'm sorry, Elliot.

[6:22] Play the shadow of your phone. Play games. Play games. Yes, okay. Guy. Sorry? Banking. Oh, banking.

[6:32] Yes, of course. Yes, Sarah? A torch. A torch. Yeah, okay. Hundreds. Last one. Marianne. Ask Google. Ask Google. Yes. So all these amazing things. Is it a phone?

[6:43] Gary thinks it's just for making calls. Sorry, somebody else. Watch videos. Thank you. So we can use our phones. Sorry.

[6:54] FaceTime. FaceTime. Video. Yep. Video. One more. John says you can shut it off so you don't get bothered by people. Okay.

[7:07] Well, yeah, that might be able to be used. Okay. So I'm going to show you a picture now of something that some of you will know very well and some of you may not have seen or certainly not have seen recently.

[7:19] Okay. Okay. Now, what is this? What is this? Toba. It's a telephone. There we are. A young person knows what a telephone is. Who had one or still has one of these in their house with the dial that goes round, you know, one and you have to wait ages for your nine.

[7:36] I never knew why the emergency calls were 999 because it takes so long to get there. Yeah. I had one. Shirley. Have you still got it? Got it, Shirley? Shirley. Yes. Fine. Well, so if you had a telephone in your house, you will know that you probably couldn't watch YouTube on it or send texts or play games or watch videos.

[7:58] You probably couldn't act. Well, you probably could shut it off. A telephone is used for making calls, phone calls, for speaking to somebody. Okay. So that will explain in this song, which is prayer is like a telephone.

[8:13] Okay. A telephone is one of these that you can't do all these other things on. And it's to use to talk to people. And our song is telling us that prayer is like a telephone for us to talk to Jesus.

[8:27] It's got some actions with it. So let's just go through the actions. I think Paul's going to play just as we talk it through and then we'll sing it. Prayer is like a telephone for us to talk to Jesus.

[8:42] Prayer is like a telephone for us to talk to God. Prayer is like a telephone for us to talk to Jesus.

[8:58] Pick it up and use it every day. Prayer is like a telephone for us to talk to Jesus. So the next bit says, you can shout out loud. Okay. That might be a type of prayer when you're praising God, thanking him.

[9:12] You're full of joy. It might be a prayer when you're angry and you're frustrated and you're saying, God, why have you let this happen? You might be shouting your prayer. You might be whispering softly.

[9:23] Because you might be talking about something that's emotional or sad or something that you've done and you're confessing to God. It might be a prayer of confession. You don't want everybody to hear it. Just God.

[9:34] You might make no noise at all. You might be sitting quietly, speaking to God through your thoughts, listening to God as he speaks into your heart. All sorts of different types of prayer.

[9:45] But God will always hear our call. Shall we stand up and sing the song together? Prayer is like a telephone for us to talk to God.

[10:20] Prayer is like a telephone for us to talk to Jesus. Give up and use it every day.

[10:34] We shall have loud. We must be solemnly. We can make no noise at all. But we'll always hear our call.

[10:47] Prayer is like a telephone. For us to talk to Jesus. Prayer is like a telephone for us to talk to God.

[11:01] Prayer is like a telephone for us to talk to Jesus. Pick it up and use it every day.

[11:14] Pick it up and use it every day. Thank you. Please sit down. Somebody in the music group, when I suggested we were going to sing this song, said, Oh no, I've got that as an earworm.

[11:27] You know, it goes around and around and around in your head. So I hope you do have it as an earworm today, because that will help you remember what prayer is all about. Thank you. Judy.

[11:38] And we're nicely warmed up with those actions now. So we're going to do another action song now about the way that God leads us and guides us, which is also all part of prayer. We're going to sing My Lighthouse. I think Judy's going to lead us in the actions with some friends.

[11:49] We've got some more friends. So do come along if you're going to help us with that. Please stand and we're going to sing together My Lighthouse. My Lighthouse, churchragel phi рек I impart so that we're in the hands and bows.

[12:12] in my resting and in my doubt in my failures you won't walk out your great love will lead me through you are the peace in my troubles in the silence you won't let go in the question your truth will hold your great love will lead me through you are the peace in my troubles my lighthouse shining in the darkness i will follow you oh my lighthouse my lighthouse i will trust in the promise you will carry me oh oh with each morning i'll rise and sing my god's love will lead me through you are the peace in my troubles my oh my oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh actions. That was wonderful.

[16:03] Praise God with our whole bodies. Now, I just want to share with you a few things, exciting things we've got in the life of the church coming up in the next few weeks. Beginning next weekend is our week of prayer. This is something that we've done around this time every year for the last few years. A week we pray all the time, but a special week where we can really dedicate time, more time than usual, to spending time with God in prayer. And we're having a special week of prayer. There's going to be a special room set up here with resources to help you to pray. You can use that.

[16:34] We've got a prayer guide. You can pick up a prayer guide. There's one that looks like this, which is a prayer guide that you can take home. There's also a family prayer guide. These are on the table at the front here. You can pick them up and take them for your way home, to read at home. We're also encouraging you to pick a time slot to pray for one hour at some point during that week, with the aim of filling up a whole week so we can be praying as a church 24-7 for a whole week.

[17:03] And if you'd like to sign up for that, then you can do so on the website. The web address is there on the screen. The other way you can do that is when you go up for coffee later today, Kathy is going to be in the information room. Kathy, can you just wave so I know you're here? Kathy's up there at the moment, but she's going to be in the information room when you go out through to coffee.

[17:22] She'll have a sign-up list. So please talk to Kathy and sign up for a slot for that week of prayer. And we'll be sharing more about that during the week and next week as well. So I really encourage you to put that in your diary and think about making extra time during that week to meet with God.

[17:38] It'll be a wonderful thing to do and something that you won't regret. The following Sunday, the 22nd of January, we're going to have a special time together. We'll have a service as normal, but then after the service, we're going to have a lunch together and then following the lunch together, we're going to have a meeting and it's a meeting for everybody.

[17:58] Everyone is welcome to come and we're going to be sharing some exciting news and information about the Living Stones project, which is the plans for redeveloping this sanctuary space of our church building.

[18:11] So that's going to be a really important time for you to come along to, to share and to spend time with other people, get to know other people and to find out more and pray into what's happening in the church in 2023.

[18:23] Now, catering for that lunch, we're going to be providing some hot food, jack of potatoes with different fillings and we need your help with that. So we would like you to provide certain items of food, but there's a list of what we need you to bring.

[18:38] So when you go up for tea and coffee in the main hall later, if you can find Kevin Bowen, Kevin, can you just wave so I know you're here? Kevin's over there, but he's going to be up in the main hall. I'm guessing you're going to be with a clipboard or some kind of list so you can find Kevin and please sign up for you to bring something that you can bring along as part of that meal to share with everyone else.

[18:57] And we'd also like you to sign up if you're planning to stay for that meal on the 22nd of January, please sign up so we know the numbers to cater for, so we know who's coming.

[19:08] The other thing that's coming up in February is our weekend at home. That's on the 18th of 19th of February. We've done this again in previous years.

[19:19] We spend the whole day together on the Saturday. We've got some teaching, some different fun activities, some workshops. Great time to get to know each other, to be together, to build relationships and to learn and grow together and then a special time together on the Sunday as well.

[19:32] So please save the date, 18th and 19th of February. Now I'm going to pray for our children and young people and their leaders before they go out for the service.

[19:42] Just to say at the end of the service, I've mentioned this, we're having an extended time of response and prayer and we're going to do that again at the evening service. So if anyone is serving with our children and young people, we don't want you to miss out on that time to be prayed for.

[19:55] So either come into the sanctuary at the end, after your group, or come back this evening and we'll have an opportunity for you to receive prayer ministry then. Let's pray for our children and young people. Before they go out.

[20:06] And for WOW who are meeting later today as well. Father God, we thank you so much for blessing us with children and young people. And we pray for our friends of the WOW group as well.

[20:17] And we pray for them as they meet now and later on this afternoon. I pray especially for your anointing and blessing on their leaders as they lead those groups. And I pray that everyone as they take part in those groups will have a wonderful time experiencing you and growing closer to you.

[20:32] We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please can you go out through the registration room here and parents can you register your children if you haven't already done so for their groups.

[20:43] Thanks. Amen. Amen.

[20:55] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[21:12] Amen. Thank you.

[21:42] It's good seeing the one just dancing out to the group, isn't it? Yeah, let's come and pray. We thank you, Lord, for this precious opportunity to share together on this Sunday.

[21:56] We are in awe of your amazing love and faithfulness and give you praise for this beautiful world that you've created. We're so grateful, Lord, for your favor on us in the past year.

[22:08] And we seek your vision and blessing for this forthcoming year of 2023. And as Andrews just prayed, we do pray for our children, our young people and their teachers as they return to school for the first full week after the Christmas holidays.

[22:21] And we do pray for those who've struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic and who are fearful and anxious about the future. And we do ask for wisdom and compassion as we care for each other and those working on the front line.

[22:36] And we continue to pray for those in our fellowship who've been bereaved and find these dark winter days challenging. Lord, we pray that tonight you'd be with us at our communion service here in the sanctuary.

[22:51] We pray that we ask that the service might be a good time of worship together and a reminder of the sacrifice that Jesus made for each one of us to be in relationship with you. And we pray that we will seek you, particularly during our forthcoming week of prayer, and seek your wisdom and discernment as we meet for a fellowship lunch and update on the Living Stones project, as Andrew just told us on the 22nd of January.

[23:18] Lord, we do want to pray for our town too, Lord. We seek you, Lord, for the healing and transformation of High Wycombe, to remain open to the leading of the Holy Spirit and to follow his prompting.

[23:29] We pray for us to increase our trust and dependence upon your word and its truth and lead less on our own understanding. And we pray for wisdom in the use of our money, our homes, our wealth and material goods individually, as a church and as a nation, and for us as we listen and respond to your word.

[23:52] We pray that we pray that we will be obedient to your instructions. We read in Matthew 11, 28, We bring all these prayers to you, our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

[24:29] Thanks very much, Anthony, for leading us in prayers. And we're going to sing again now to the God who always hears our prayer.

[24:40] And to our God who is always there whenever we cry out to him. The God who is there for us with his angel armies. Let's stand and we're going to praise him together. Let's stand and we're going to praise him together.

[25:19] Let's stand and we're going to praise him together.

[25:49] The God who is always by my side. The God who reigns forever. He is a friend of mine. The God of angel armies.

[26:01] Is always by my side. My strength is in your name. For you alone can save.

[26:12] You will deliver me. Yours is the victory. Whom shall I fear.

[26:23] Whom shall I fear. I know who goes before me, I know who stands behind The God of angel armies is always by my side The one who reigns forever, he is a friend of mine The God of angel armies is always by my side And nothing formed against me shall stand You hold the whole world in your hands I'm holding on to your promises You are faithful, you are faithful And nothing formed against me shall stand

[27:24] You hold the whole world in your hands I'm holding on to your promises You are faithful, you are faithful You are faithful, you are faithful I know who goes before me, I know who stands behind The God of angel armies is always by my side The one who reigns forever, he is a friend of mine The God of angel armies is always by my side I know who goes before me, I know who stands behind The God of angel armies is always by my side The one who reigns forever, he is a friend of mine

[28:28] The God of angel armies is always by my side So our reading this morning is from 2 Kings chapter 19 verses 14 to 19 And then chapter 20 verses 1 to 7 And here Hezekiah the king of Judah Has just received a letter from Sennacherib The king of Assyria threatening the kingdom of Judah And ridiculing the God of Israel Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers And read it Then he went up to the temple of the Lord And spread it out before the Lord And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord Lord, the God of Israel Enthroned between the cherubim

[29:30] You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth You have made heaven and earth Give ear, Lord, and hear Open your eyes, Lord, and see Listen to the words Sennacherib has sent To ridicule the living God It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings Have laid waste these nations and their lands They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them For they were not gods but only wooden stone Fashioned by human hands Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand So that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God And then 2 Kings chapter 20 verses 1 to 7 In those days Hezekiah became ill And was at the point of death The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz Went to him and said This is what the Lord says Put your house in order Because you are going to die You will not recover Hezekiah turned his face to the wall

[30:34] And prayed to the Lord Remember, 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 Before Isaiah had left the middle court The word of the Lord came to him Go back and tell Hezekiah The ruler 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 15 years to your life And I will deliver you And this city From the hand of the king of Assyria I will defend this city for my sake And for the sake of my servant David Then Isaiah said Prepare a poultice of figs They did so And applied it to the boy And he recovered Thank you very much Rachel

[31:39] And good morning to you all And if I've not seen you Since the new year Happy new year to you Let's turn to God in prayer As we listen to His word At the start of this new year Father Our world is full of noise Full of words So many words And we thank you this morning For your indelible word That speaks and is true And is solid and firm In a world of shifting sand We thank you that Because you are on the throne We need not fear For your love overcomes every fear And I pray this morning As we hear your word That the love of Christ Will dispel every fear And faith will rise

[32:41] And grow And develop Amongst the people of God Hear our prayer In Jesus name Amen Well I'm very grateful To Pete Montague For the title for this series Great prayers of the Bible We last year You may remember Looked at Paul's prayers And the prayers of Jesus To guide us in our praying And now we're going To the Old Testament And we're going to have a look At what Hezekiah does in prayer And you've seen some of that In the reading already And we're also going to hear From Daniel And also Nehemiah In the weeks ahead So don't you want to learn Do you ever think I've got no idea how to pray You know I know you just pray But wouldn't it be great To get some guidelines Along the way And the disciples of Jesus Asked him You know Can you teach us how to pray The Lord's Prayer Is a good one to go for too So let's learn How to pray Now I don't know if you noticed But Pope Benedict

[33:42] Or I'm not sure he was a Pope Was he actually Because he'd stepped down From being Pope He died this last week I guess he'll go down in history As the first Pope for 600 years Who died not as the Pope If you follow me But the reason for mentioning him Isn't because of his death I suppose it was because of his death That he was mentioned Some of the things he said But he was quoted in a radio interview In 1969 saying the following And it just kind of stuck with me And I wanted to share it with you This is what he said He predicted that the Christian church Would become smaller and poorer But that the Christian church Would become more spiritual He said that secular society Might be richer But more lonely This was in 1969 And it will find That secular society Will find a little flock Of believers Perhaps a remnant We might call that

[34:42] Based upon the text We're reading today That this little flock Would offer them Something new to them A faith Cherished And preserved A faith Cherished And preserved I wonder As you face 2023 Whether you're feeling I don't know A little bit Smaller And poorer I know we've got A cost of living crisis I wonder If what he said Seems to ring true to you Praise the Lord You're here Listening To the word Of God A little flock Who cherish This gospel Who are preserved By the Lord As we lean on him In prayer And dependence I think he might have

[35:43] Had something Very useful To say there I'm not saying It's anywhere near Just for Guy's Purposes This is not the word Of the Lord When the Pope speaks This is the word Of the Lord We're coming on to But it's certainly useful To hear Somebody Who spoke in 1969 Something I think That rings true to me I wonder As you face 2023 How you're feeling What word Might describe The year ahead BBC has done A bit of a survey On this And they did A word cloud Coming up Of what people Have said About 2023 I must say They weren't The most exciting words Shall I describe Some of them You can see Some of them there But difficult Worrying Challenging Scary Tough Bleak A complete disaster A number of people said I wonder what word You would Come up with For 2023 Perhaps just for a moment Have a think What would be Your word Maybe quite different

[36:43] But the context Of our text Here in 2 Kings 19 Might well be Described by These words It looks like A complete disaster Coming on The southern kingdom Of Israel And upon Their good king King Hezekiah Now the book Of 1 and 2 Kings Probably isn't The main book That you tend to read From the bible So I want to give you A little bit of background So you can tune into it We have it as Kings 1 1 and 2 Kings But in fact It was one book When it was written It was just on two Rather long scrolls And hence We ended up Calling it 1 and 2 Kings But it's one book And it catalogues The time after King David That king after God's own heart Right through 40 different kings In the northern And southern kingdom To the point In 586 BC Where Jerusalem Falls And it's a It's a bit of a Bit of a I don't know Disappointing book

[37:43] In lots of ways Because in the northern kingdom You have 20 kings And all 20 Are described As bad kings It's not great Is it And in the southern kingdom You have 20 kings And unfortunately Only 8 of those Are considered good So 12 are bad And 8 are good It's not a great Record Is it really But the good news is The guy we're listening to Today Hezekiah Was considered A good king And he was a good king Because He encouraged God's people To worship The living God As we're doing This morning He encouraged God's people To put away Idols That get in the way Of worshipping The Lord God Almighty And he encouraged God's people To be faithful To the covenant Of Abraham That God is Making a people For his own possession And he's going to Take them Into a land He's preparing For them For the people

[38:44] Of Israel That was the Promised land Of Canaan For us And New Testament Believers It's the new heaven And the new earth I remember somebody Saying to me I don't know This last week Somebody was talking About their forever home You know Like the home They want to live in Forever You know And I just want To let you know People of God That there is Only one Forever home For the people Of God Have you worked it out It is not Your current home However beautiful It is That is not Your forever home Our forever home Is in the father's house Where he's Preparing a room For us And there'll be No council tax There won't be Any energy supply Problems Or cost of living Crisis That is your Forever home That wasn't in my notes I don't know where That came from Anyway Here we go Our passage comes In 2 Kings 19 and 20 Where we're introduced To this wonderful king King Hezekiah

[39:45] And he is facing A formidable enemy In the Assyrian empire And this king of Assyria Called Sennacherib I wasn't I thought Probably Rachel and I Ought to have got together And said How are we going to pronounce this You know It's a great name Sennacherib Big enough name For the king of Assyria But the king of Judah The southern kingdom That we're focusing upon Is Hezekiah And he's a good king He's probably about 30 years old In chapter 19 When we meet him And sadly Sennacherib Has got the southern kingdom Of Judah In his sights He wants it And he wants to do it Take over By force If necessary I wonder What do you do When you feel Threatened And under pressure What's the first thing You do Just kind of think You know So suddenly you feel All the forces Are against you What's your response I wonder Can you think about How you generally respond

[40:46] What's your normal response I often go and talk To Dawn about it Actually But Hezekiah doesn't Talk to his wife It's interesting He calls upon A prophet He calls upon Isaiah And he says In 2 Kings 18.36 He says To the people of God Please be silent When the Assyrians Start bragging And calling upon us To give in To surrender Don't nurse fears Don't appeal To the enemy We're going to go To Isaiah Who's our prophet And we're going to Ask him to pray I wonder whether When we face Real threats And pressure Whether we start Talking lots and lots And we try to explain All that's going on And try to appeal I wonder whether

[41:47] Hezekiah would say People of God Never Complain Never Explain Or was that the queen I can't quite remember There we go But what Hezekiah does Is he says Let's go To the prophet And he asks Isaiah To pray He asks him To pray For this remnant Of God's people In the southern kingdom And Isaiah After praying Prophesies He brings a word From God And he says this He says That God Will put such a spirit In the heart Of Sennacherib That when he hears A certain report He will return To his own country And there God's going to Cut him down By the sword So what's going To happen is This oppressor Sennacherib And his armies Are all going To go home Nothing's going To happen In Israel In the southern kingdom

[42:48] And when he gets Home He's going to be Greeted By a sword From one of his Own people Does that sound Good news Are you feeling Happy if you're Hezekiah It's the kind of Prophecy you want To hear isn't it Wow What a great What an important Thing to call Upon the spiritual Leaders To pray In times Of great Need That's what Hezekiah Did And this Morning We're going to Have opportunity To receive Prayer From those Who are elders And deacons Here in this Church And I Really hope That many of Us will say That's a good Thing to do I'm looking For a prophecy Or a word That will be So encouraging As we As we come Together In prayer Now we might Imagine that once The prophet has Spoken Everything's going To be okay And you know Isn't that the Case you know You pray And then Everything's just A sweetness And light No often It's not like That is it And have a look If you would

[43:48] Go to 2 Kings 19 If you've got Your bibles Do open them Up there And have a look At verses 10 And 11 For a moment So he's done The right thing He's called upon The prophet The prophet Has brought A wonderful Prophecy And then What happens Well Sennacherib Does this He says to Hezekiah King of Judah Do not let The god You depend On deceive You when He says Jerusalem Will not Be handed Over to The king Of Assyria Surely You've heard What the king Of Assyria Has done To all The countries Destroying Them Completely And will You You Hezekiah Will you Be delivered I think The implication Of his words Are You jolly Well won't Be delivered It seems Like it Kind of Gets hotter After Prayer Begins And the Prophet Speaks I wonder What Hezekiah Will do Will he Despair In fact What happens Is that This king

[44:48] Of Assyria Sends a Letter To him Confirming This So he Puts it In writing You're going To get it This is going To happen To you Hezekiah Like all The other Nations You're going To get Completely Annihilated You'll be Taken into Exile And so on Will he Despair Will he hold Fast To the Word Of the Lord Or will He start Moaning And complaining Well Let's have a Look at What happens This is Verses 14 To 19 And this Is what Was read To us What happens Is That Hezekiah Goes into The temple Of God With the Letter From Sennacherib And he Lays it Out Before The Lord He says Look at This Look at What They've Been Saying Look at What This Arrogant King Has Been Saying Lord God Almighty Look at These Words I wonder Whether you Do that In prayer You Take What has Been Said Things You're Concerned About

[45:48] And just Lay Them Out Before God Say Father Look at This Look at This Spill That's Just Come In Look at This Report In The Newspaper Just lay It out Before God But I want You To Notice The Way In Which Hezekiah Lays It Out What I Often Do I Realize When I Pray Is I Get Into The Detail Of All The Problems Do you Know That Kind Of Thing You Go Lord Can You See This Problem Here And This Problem Here And The Government Aren't Doing Very Well And Look At Ukraine And Do you Follow Me All My Attention Is On The Problems Now Let's See What Hezekiah Does In The Temple Of God Having Laid The Letter Out Turn To Verse 15 He Says This Now I Don't Know Whether He Said This Loudly Or Quietly Rachel I Think I I've Gone For Loudly That May Be Me So Here We Go This Is What He Does In The Temple He

[46:49] Says This Oh Lord God Of Israel Enthrown Between The Cherubim You Alone Are God Over All The Kingdoms Of The Earth You Made Heaven And Earth Wow Where's His Focus Is His Focus On The Letter His Focus Is On The Lord God Almighty And Do You Notice What It Says We May Just Think It's Kind Of Flowery Language But He Says Lord God Of Israel Enthrown He's Sitting On The Throne And What Is Either Side Of Him Between The Cherubim Now These Are Non Human Creatures Who Guarded The Tree Of Life In Genesis 3 He's Saying I'm Talking To The One Who Has Power Over Life And Death The Cherubim Either Side

[47:49] Of Him Can You See How He's Viewing This I'm Looking At The One Who Is King Over All The Nations And The One Who Controls Life And Death Why Is Hezekiah Doing That Because He's Facing Life And Death Is He Not As The Assyrian Empire And Army Is Bearing Down Upon Judah That's What He Does And Then In Verse 17 And 18 I Really Like The Way He's Really Honest Before The Lord Have A look At Verses 17 And 18 He Says This It Is True O Lord That The Assyrian Kings Have Laid Waste These Nations And Their Lands They Have Thrown Their Gods Into The Fire And Destroyed Them For They Were No Gods At All But Only Wood And Stone Fashioned By Men's Hands What He's Saying Is Look It's True They Have Taken All The Other Nations And

[48:50] In The Ancient Near East When A Nation Fell It Was Considered That The God Of That Nation Also Fell Do You Get The Idea So If Those Nations Have Fallen It Means Their Gods Weren't Gods At All And This Is What Hezekiah Is So Concerned About Because He's Saying Look Lord If If You Allow Judah To Fall Won't It Become Obvious To The Other Nations That You Lord Have Fallen Do You Do You See That's What He's Concerned About He's Concerned Not About His Own Self Or His Nation He's Concerned About The Glory Of The Lord God Almighty That Seems To Be To Be Where His Focus Is What Is Our Primary Concern In Prayer Hezekiah's Primary Concern Was The Glory Of The One Sitting On The Throne

[49:50] Between The Cherubim That Was His Primary Concern As He Prayed It Strikes Me That Others In The Bible Had A Similar Concern We're Going To Be Looking At David And Goliath I Think David Was Just So Upset By The Way This Philistine Was Shouting At God's People How Dare He I Think Elisha Was Concerned About Those Prophets Of Baal And The Honour Of Almighty God I Wonder If Our Prayers Might Have That Part To Them Too That The Honour Of God The Honour Of The One Who Sits On The Throne Would Be Our Primary Concern And Wonderfully In Verse 20 We Discover Something Which Is Just So Exciting Have A Look At It It's Such A Small Verse Didn't Have This Read But Let's Have A Look At It Then Isaiah Son Of Amos Sent A Message To Hezekiah This Is

[50:50] What The Lord God Of Israel Says I Have Heard Your Prayer Now I Love It When People Listen To Me I'm Told By My Family I Talk Quite A Lot And It's Always Nice To Be Heard Isn't It But How Exciting When You Hear That The One Sitting On The Throne Between The Cherubim Has Heard Isn't That Exciting The Lord God Almighty Has Heard The Prayer Of This King This Faithful Good King And Then Everything Changes We Didn't Have This Read But Have A Look At Verses 32 To 37 You've Got Quite A Lot That The Lord Says Through Isaiah But Go Back To Go Forward In Chapter 19 To Verses 32 To 37

[51:50] So We've Got This King Sennacherib Bragging Away At All That's Going On In His Kingdom And This Is What The King Of All Kings Says To Sennacherib Therefore This Is What The Lord Says He Won't Even Get An Arrow In That's A Bit Surprising He Will Not Lay Siege Around The City Either That Was The Other Way In Which You Could Win Game He Joel He Won't Get Into The City I Will Defend This City And Save It For My Sake And For The Sake Of David My Servant And Then Have A Look At Vers 35

[52:51] This Is Sobering A bit like the moment of the Passover in Egypt, that night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp.

[53:09] When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, broke camp, I bet he did, and withdrew.

[53:21] He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. I bet he did. One day, while he was worshipping in the temple of his god, Nisroch, his sons, Adrammelech and Shariza, cut him down with the sword.

[53:41] Killed not by an enemy, but by his own family. And they escaped the land of Ararat, and Esarai, his son, succeeded him as king.

[53:53] What we see in this text about prayer is that, firstly, we ask others to pray for us, as Hezekiah did of the prophet Isaiah.

[54:09] And secondly, we go to God personally and lay out everything before the Lord. I wonder, as you've started 2023, have you laid it all out before the Lord? Have you taken time just to say, look, this is how I see it, Lord?

[54:22] Please, come quickly to save. Come and heal this land. Come and build your church. Come and meet with us in our family, your family.

[54:35] Come and bring salvation. I wonder if you've done that as couples, as families together. That's what Hezekiah does.

[54:46] And then the beautiful thing, and you may be wondering why I chose to go to chapter 20, verses 1 to 7. The beautiful thing is that there's also a very personal side here to Hezekiah as he approaches his death.

[55:02] Most writers believe that chapter 20 comes about 12 years later, so it doesn't kind of flow on immediately. 12 years later, roughly, we find Isaiah visiting Hezekiah again.

[55:17] Well, I bet he was looking forward to that visit, wasn't he? Isaiah, who brought that prophecy? But unfortunately, this time, he brings a different message. It's a true message, but it's a different message.

[55:29] This is what he is told in verse 1 of chapter 20. This is what the Lord says. Put your house in order, because you're going to die. You will not recover.

[55:41] It's kind of blunt, isn't it? It doesn't sort of wrap it around or say anything sort of fluffy about it. It just says it as it is. Put your house in order.

[55:52] You're going to die. You won't recover. Thank you very much. Hezekiah doesn't protest. He doesn't appeal, doesn't ask for a better prophecy. He turns away from the prophet, turns towards the wall, turns away from the world, if you like, turns to God in a very private, private scene.

[56:16] And sometimes, friends, we do ultimately end up facing God on our own. And this is what Hezekiah does. And he prays from very deep places in his heart.

[56:34] Have a look at verse 3. So he turns to the wall and prays. Remember, O Lord, how I walked before you faithfully with wholehearted devotion and done what is good in your eyes.

[56:52] And Hezekiah wept bitterly. There is a place for tears in our praying. And certainly Hezekiah is weeping before the Lord.

[57:05] I wonder, do you sometimes find that you're beyond words and that you're groaning before God, praying to him with tears.

[57:16] Sometimes those groans come from the Holy Spirit himself, calling out to God in need. This is a good thing to do, people of God.

[57:27] To weep before God. Not to put it on, but if it's there, let it out. And then something beautiful happens.

[57:38] You had it read to you. Verses 4 to 7. We're told that Hezekiah, after he said all these things, Isaiah had left the middle court and the word of the Lord came to him.

[57:51] He says, go back, tell Hezekiah, the leader of the people, this is what the Lord says. And he basically adds 15 years to his life. Prayers change things, friends.

[58:04] Prayers gave 15 more years of service to this king. So, ask others to pray for you.

[58:16] Go to God yourself in prayer. Weep before Him. Pour out your heart before Him. And see what happens when the one seated on the throne between the cherubim hears your prayer.

[58:30] See what happens. This is why we're calling the church to prayer. This is why there's an opportunity in this service to pray too. Let's just spend a moment in prayer and then we will sing before Andrew continues guiding us through.

[58:52] Father, we're so often very independent people. We try to do things our way. And we are sorry, Lord, that often only when things get really, really difficult do we turn to you.

[59:07] And often we do so by telling you off and telling you how things aren't as they should be. Forgive us, Lord. Instead, give us a vision again of your great honor and your glory, your authority and your power.

[59:22] That you alone carry the power over life and death. And help us to come humbly before you. To ask for prayer from those you've put in leadership here.

[59:36] To ask personally before you. Laying everything out before you at the start of this year. And yes, to come to you in tears. Hear our prayer, Lord.

[59:51] Holy Spirit, help us. Change us. And renew us. Thank you that you are, you have been our salvation and you will be our salvation.

[60:03] Hear our prayer. Amen. Can I invite the music group up? We're going to sing a wonderful song. The grace of God has reached for me. And of course he did that through the Lord Jesus Christ.

[60:15] And continues to reach to us by his spirit. Can I invite you now to stand as we sing this and declare the Lord is my salvation. The Lord is my salvation. The Lord is my salvation.

[60:53] The grace of God has reached for me, and pulled me from the raging sea.

[61:08] And I am saved on this solid ground, the Lord is my salvation.

[61:23] I will not fear when darkness falls, His strength will help me scale these walls.

[61:37] I'll see the dawn before the rising sun, the Lord is my salvation.

[61:49] Who is like the Lord, our God, strong to save faith, born in love.

[62:06] My death is pain and the victory won, the Lord is my salvation.

[62:18] My hope is hidden in the Lord. He flowers each promise of His word.

[62:34] When winter fades, I know spring will come, the Lord is my salvation.

[62:47] In times of waiting, times of need, when I know lost, when I am weak.

[63:03] I know His grace when we knew these days. The Lord is my salvation.

[63:16] Who is like the Lord, our God, strong to save faith, born in love.

[63:32] My death is pain and the victory won, the Lord is my salvation.

[63:44] And when I reach the final day. He will not leave me in the grave.

[64:00] In the time I rise, He will call me home. The Lord is my salvation.

[64:12] Who is like the Lord, our God, strong to save faith, born in love.

[64:28] My death is pain and the victory won, the Lord is my salvation.

[64:40] Glory be to God the Father. Glory be to God the Son.

[64:54] Glory be to God the Son. Glory be to God the Son.

[65:11] Glory be to God the Son. is the lord is the lord is do please sit down thank you to the musicians for leading us in worship we're gonna have a bit of time to just slow it down and spend time in god's presence now we don't want to rush this i believe that god wants to meet with each one of us this morning so we're going to just create a bit of space to be still to pray to to be prayed for and to respond if you've been with us on the live stream this morning thanks for joining us we're going to stop the the live stream in just a moment but i'd love to extend an invitation to you if you're watching on the live stream we'd love to pray for you please contact us via the church office malcolm or i would love to give you a call and pray with you over the phone or come and visit with you and and pray with you we'd love to to do that but thank you for joining us and we'll see you soon so we're stopping our live stream now and i'm just gonna ask stephen to to put some music on in the background as we just spend some time and i i'm gonna lead us in a prayer of dedicating ourselves to god at the start of 2023 it's a great way to to start the year as we look at what we've got ahead and maybe we don't really know what we've got ahead when king hezekiah thought about what he had coming up he was full of fear as we look ahead to 2023 we may be full of fear we may be full of apprehension we may be feeling overwhelmed we may be feeling excited we may be really looking forward to the opportunities that we have to serve and everything that god's going to do through us this year but as hezekiah did let's let's lay that all out before god in his house this is a great place to do that today god had plans for hezekiah and he's got plans for us i'd like to invite you just to stand and i'm just gonna lead us in a prayer just committing ourselves to god for this year and just echo this prayer in your own hearts if you if you agree with the words of this prayer you might like to just hold out your hands to to god as a just as an outward symbol of us submitting to god and surrendering to him lord god at the start of this new year we turn to you we thank you for your goodness to us for your faithfulness to us as individuals and as a church over the past year we stand at the start of a new year and we don't have clarity of what's ahead but you know exactly what's ahead for us lord and we thank you that you do we thank you for that we want to lift up to you the things that concern us the things that worry us the things that hinder us and distract us from moving on with you today lord would you deal with those things according to your wisdom according to your love according to your power thank you that you are big enough for all those things we're sorry for letting other things getting in the way of our love for you we thank you that you've welcomed us into relationship with you through jesus death on the cross for us we're so thankful for what you've done for us and lord we submit ourselves to you at the start of this year

[69:12]  we surrender to you to your will to your ways lord we can't do it alone we need you we need you so much we ask you to fill us to strengthen us to equip us because we love you and we want to serve you we want to be your hands and your feet and your mouthpiece in the place that you've put us that everyone around us may know that you are god so we pray in jesus name come holy spirit come fill us refresh us energize us give us your love and your passion and your hope and your compassion for others we need more of you because we long to be more like you in jesus name amen please do sit down for the next 10 to 15 minutes or so we're just going to have time to respond to god i've asked some of our church leaders to be here at the front to pray for people i'm going to ask them just to come forward now and once they've been prayed for it's really important that they're prayed for and they're going to pray for each other we'll be prayed for each other we're going to give you all the opportunity to come to the front and be prayed for by one of our church leaders here hezekiah sought the ministry of of a spiritual leader of a leader and he had isaiah minister to him it's really important for us to be ministered to by by each other we're not saying this morning come and be prayed for if you have a particular issue we're expecting you all to take this opportunity actually to as part of our worship this morning just to come and be prayed for so when you're ready after the needs have prayed just come and sit down here at the front you can sit on the step or sit on the pew at the front somewhere and one of our leaders will will pray for you and you may like to share a specific prayer request um but as malcolm said we don't need to get into details this morning because god knows and we'd just love to pray a blessing on you to pray for god to to fill you with his love and with his power and with his strength and with everything you need for the for the year ahead so just a time for our leaders to to pray for each other and we prayed for and then we'll invite you to to come up as you as you feel ready