[0:00] In your Bible, 2 Chronicles 33, 12. I want you to think with me tonight. I want you to think with me about two types of cases here. We're going to look at a passage of Scripture.
[0:11] It's one of my favorite stories in the Chronicles. This is the story of a man that should know God, that should follow God, that should come along and do it.
[0:22] He's born into a great family line. I mean, anybody born into the kingship, no matter even if the most wicked ones, there's always David back there. There's always David back there somewhere in the family line.
[0:34] This guy should do right, but instead of doing right, he does wrong, and then God has to literally destroy him, body slam him, work him over very good so that he'll get saved, get right, come back to him, whatever is the case going on, and then he ends his life doing the right thing.
[0:50] As I think about the story, I think about Saul, the apostle Paul, on the road to Damascus. He will not come to God unless God knocks him off his horse, makes him see light, makes him go blind, and gets him right so he'll come along.
[1:03] A lot of people get saved or get right when their life is falling apart. When there's a crisis, that's when they get their life right with God, and that's his story. I think about a friend of mine who's an evangelist.
[1:15] His dad's a pastor, and I don't know his dad. Maybe he died by now. But his dad was a pastor up in Illinois, and he was in the military in the Marine Corps, and he had set track and field records in his school, and he was a very proud and cocky young man.
[1:31] He joined the Marine Corps because they were looking for a few good men. He was running from God. He knew he was running from God. He tells this story himself. But in Vietnam, he steps on a landmine, loses both legs.
[1:42] I think one was left at 11 inches long, and the other was left at 4 inches long, and that's when he got his life right with God, and that's when he started preaching the gospel and became an evangelist. This is a story of how God has to destroy a man to get him ready to want to serve him.
[1:57] And so I would like to ask the question as we read the passage tonight, what will it take in your life? What will it take for you to really sell out? I was visiting in Tarrant City, Alabama, Mount Calvary Baptist Church.
[2:08] We went visiting, and there were regular shut-ins that people had gone to the church. The church was 9 million years old, and so it had a lot of church people and people that were associated with church people. And so on a regular basis, we had to visit shut-ins.
[2:20] I'll never forget visiting a man who told me with his own mouth, I was too big for God. I didn't need God. I told God I didn't need God. He told us this story almost every time we went there, and he said, I would not look up to God.
[2:31] I would not bow my head to God. I thought I had everything under control. And he said, and one day, just one thing happened to him, and he was in this bed. He couldn't even bend his hand to take his own pills. And he said, and I spend all my time looking up now.
[2:43] And he got in his life right with God. You may think those are drastic stories. You may think they're evangelist-type stories because the evangelist comes through, and he always has the horrible stories to get everybody scared and to get them right. But this is a Bible story I'm going to tell you tonight.
[2:55] This is a Bible story I'm going to tell you tonight. And you're going to see it in the Bible, and I want you to take note if you would. Turn with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 33, 2 Chronicles chapter 33 and verse 12, and let's read that if you would.
[3:06] And when he was in affliction, you should underline that. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
[3:17] I just wish you'd underline. I'm going to read verse 13 with you in just a second. I just wish you'd underline this. This guy has spent 11 verses in this chapter being like the most vile and wicked person. You're going to see about him in just a minute.
[3:27] He is horribly wicked. He is ruling over God's people. He is horribly wicked. And God's going to get his attention. And so when God brings affliction and takes him captive and lets him get tortured, and when he's at the last part of his life and when he's ready to give up, he's in affliction.
[3:45] He sought God, and he humbled himself, and he humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. Verse 13. And he prayed unto him, and he was entreated of him.
[3:55] And God heard his prayer. God heard his supplication. God brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.
[4:06] Here's the question. What will it take in your life? What will it take in my life? What does it take for God to wake me up, get me on track, get me surrendered, get me serving, get me putting him first if I'm not saved or if I'm a Christian running from God?
[4:20] So let's start with his story, if you would. Look at 2 Chronicles chapter 33 and verse 9. He's a wicked king. Manasseh is a very wicked king. So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err and to do worse than the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.
[4:37] Would you underline do worse than the heathen? Which, by the way, I seem to find, I think that's what happens when good godly people backslide and get messed up and do wrong. I watch sometimes, and I'm like, even lost people don't do the stuff that Christian people, they get away from God do.
[4:51] It's like they want to just show how ugly and wicked they can become. But this man has made the nation of Judah, he has made the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go off track, to abandon God, to do what's wrong, and to do it worse than pagans, worse than people that God hated their religion, he has brought them that far.
[5:11] Here's some interesting truths. Here's a comforting one and a discomforting one at the same one. A wicked son can come from a godly father. That's probably one of the hardest parts of this whole story right here.
[5:24] That's probably one of the hardest parts of this whole story, because as you've been reading this passage of scripture, you watch dads and you say, is there something I can do to make sure my son turns up right? Is there something I can do? And so we got a guy named Hezekiah, and Hezekiah has a son named Manasseh, and Manasseh is wicked and vile and filthy and corrupt.
[5:41] And you want to say, why in the world did he turn out like that? It's hard to understand how children turn out. By the way, any of us that have been blessed to have our children turn out right, we ought not be cocky or proud or thinking we did anything.
[5:54] It was all the grace of God. Because good people in the Bible have children that turn out bad, and bad people have children that turn out right. And it's very hard to understand what makes that happen. And here's the real truth.
[6:05] Every child must make their own decision. Every one of them are going to make their own decision. That doesn't mean I ought not use my influence. But in the end, my children will have to choose to obey or disobey God.
[6:17] And here, Hezekiah's boy disobeys God, and that's the story. And it won't be Hezekiah that got him to do right. It'll be the Holy Spirit of God that did. 2 Chronicles 33, 1, he reigns longer than any other king that I know of.
[6:30] He's going to reign 55 years. He is starting out when he is 12 years old. And he follows the wicked heathen that God wanted destroyed. He seems to have gotten him a subscription to heathen magazine, and he knows what they're doing.
[6:43] He's reading the news from over in the wicked countries. And in verse 2, it says, He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, like unto the abominations of the heathen. He did the things that God hated, the things that turned God's stomach.
[6:56] The guy that's the son of Hezekiah is now doing those wicked things. He turned away from what his dad taught him. Look if you would in verse 3. This is a horrible phrase, but underline it in your Bible.
[7:07] He built again. Underline it. He built again. Hezekiah tore him down, and here comes Manasseh, building him back up. Daddy tore him down. Son's doing the wrong thing. He built again. The high places which Hezekiah's father had broken down.
[7:20] And look right on this. He reared up altars for Balaam. Daddy tore him down. He builds them back. He rears up altars for the demon, Balaam, and made groves and worshiped all the hosts of heaven, and he served them.
[7:33] The man of God's boy is serving these wicked gods. He believes and acts like there's a lot of gods. He's serving the whole host of heaven. It's almost like he said, well, I believe in God. I believe in Jehovah.
[7:44] I believe in Yahweh. I believe in the God of the Bible, but there's a whole lot of other gods, and I'm just not going to give him preeminence. I'm going to practice tolerance, which I think some of you want to fall into that trap.
[7:57] It's a peril that we face in 2018. It's something that's right in front of us when we live in 2018 because in our minds, we want to say, well, you know, just because they don't believe in Jesus, they're still good people. And just because they don't believe like we do, they're still good people.
[8:09] And it's a constant argument. In verse 4, he builds altars to these false gods in the house of the Lord. You got your Bible open? Underline that. He builds altars. He goes down to the temple, this holy place that's been built for the God of heaven, and he walks into the God's house.
[8:26] There's land everywhere. He can go anywhere. He can do anything he wants to do. But he goes into that place, and he builds altars for the host of heaven, the heavenly host. That means the armies of demons, the armies of false gods.
[8:39] He builds them an altar. He builds altars in the church, the two courts of the house of the Lord. I don't know how you can get that wicked. I mean, that's just like pulling up here to a Baptist church somewhere here, and you walk in, and as you come in over there, somebody set up a shrine to some god from the Hindus, and somebody set up a Buddha over here on this side, and somebody set up another god over here.
[9:01] That's what he's doing. That's how wicked he is. He's gone from what was right, and he's gone totally the opposite direction. Then look, if you went at verse 6. This is horrific and horrible. He passes his children through the fire.
[9:14] Would you underline that? He passes his children through the fire. What happens when they pass their children through the fire? What that's talking about, they used to build these big metal objects.
[9:25] They used to heat them very hot, and they would literally lay their babies on, just like laying them on a grill and cook them for the Lord. Not the Lord God of heaven, a demon.
[9:37] That's what they did to their kids. We live in a day and time when we don't understand what we ought to do with our kids. We live in a day and time when we want to practice horrific things. We want to actually make our children our gods and not even a bronze.
[9:49] There's something bad wrong there. Look at what it says here. He observed times. He used enchantments. He used witchcraft. He dealt with familiar spirits.
[10:00] He dealt with wizards. He wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord. What can I tell you? For those of you who tend to think that all the Bible stories are nonsense and tend to think that demons don't exist and people, and that kind of stuff's not real.
[10:14] It is real, and it's right here in the Bible, and this guy's going out. He's dealing with witches, and he's dealing with wizards, and he's got people talking to the dead for him, and he's using magic, and he's watching astrology, and he's watching, and he's doing all that, and it's evil in God's eyes.
[10:27] God hates all of that. Let me just say something for us as parents today. I'm just a grandparent, but today, we may be using our children in worship.
[10:40] I mean, they use their children in worship. We worship our children. We teach our children materialism. We don't teach them to deny themselves. We don't teach them to dress modestly.
[10:52] We don't teach them to be separate from the world. We don't teach them holiness. We're not taking care of our children. It's a big deal. What you do with your kids is a big deal.
[11:04] Can I get an amen there? By the way, homeschooling your kid because he can give them a better education, and the main deal here, the main deal is I want my kids to go out and follow Jesus. I want my kids to go out and follow Jesus. Go with me to verse 7.
[11:15] He tried to replace God in his own temple. He set a carved image, the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon's son, in this house in Jerusalem, which I have chosen, I will put my name forever.
[11:30] He walked in there and set a carved idol in that temple. This guy is so wicked. It looks like there's no hope. There's a question you might ask yourself.
[11:41] Can your family member come back when they've gone too far? Can your family member that stepped off into sin and went too far, a child you raised up to train and train for God, or somebody else in your family went way too far, and you wonder, is there any hope for them to come back?
[11:53] Well, this is a good story because they do come back in this story. It's not a story for everybody, but in this story, God brings the kid back. Can you hope that one day they'll leave their wickedness and serve God? Does anyone, does God ever bring anyone back?
[12:07] Look at 2 Chronicles chapter 33 and verse 10 and write this down somewhere. God chastened him and disciplined him. Sometimes people have to be brought down to nothing to get right with God or see their need.
[12:21] It says in verse 10, The Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, and they would not hearken. Would you underline they would not hearken? That means they wouldn't pay attention. God sent messengers.
[12:32] God said, Manasseh, you know what you're doing wrong. Manasseh, you've been taught better than this. Maybe the Holy Spirit's dealing with his heart. Maybe in your life, God's saying to you, you know what's right. You know what you ought to be doing.
[12:42] And he's dealing with him, but he refuses to listen. This isn't in the Bible. But tradition says that Manasseh had Isaiah sold in half. Isaiah's his preacher.
[12:53] The guy who writes 66 chapters. Tradition says he got tired of hearing Isaiah, so he said, cut him in half. How many times has God tried to speak to you, and you have refused and even become angry at the messenger because you didn't like the message?
[13:08] So God brings horrible consequences. Look at verse 11. Therefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria. This is an interesting Bible truth whenever you study in the Bible, and that is that when nations move, it's not always just a nation moving.
[13:26] When Assyria comes against him, according to the word of God, Assyria didn't just come up with the idea, we'll go over there and whip Judah, and we'll go over and take Manasseh. What the scriptures would indicate is God said somehow he motivated, prompted, pushed the king of Assyria to come over here and to take Manasseh.
[13:44] God was at work in the affairs of man. God was moving nations to accomplish his purpose. Look at it in your Bible. Well, the Lord brought upon them the captain of the host.
[13:56] You'd like to know what I think. You know, somebody might say, well, that's what happened, and that's how the preacher wrote it down. And I'm going to tell you, I think God did it, and that's why the preacher wrote it down that way. And you don't have any, you and I need to know God can do big stuff to get us to where we need to be.
[14:11] God can control markets, and God can control governments, and God can control health, and God can control everything. I need to wake up. Manasseh, you're pointing your finger in the face of God. Manasseh, you act like God cannot do anything to you, and so God wakes up a whole country to come get you.
[14:27] Look at it. And it said, the king of Assyria took Manasseh among the thorns, put him in handcuffs and chains, and carried him to Babylon. Thorns, torture.
[14:41] Verse 12, and when he was in affliction, so he's being tortured. He's been carried captive. He's been taken off of the throne, out of the position of honor.
[14:53] I mean, being a king, that's a pretty big deal. Nobody walks in a room. Nobody gets their head higher than you. Nobody speaks to you without some form of respect. Everybody knows who you are. And now he's taken off as a prisoner and dragged through the thorns, and he is put in chains, and he is carried away as a captive.
[15:10] And usually what we know from history, whenever a captor took you, he walked you into town mocking you in a cage to show he had had power over you.
[15:21] And in verse 12, he's in affliction. It got bad enough, he prayed. It got bad enough, he prayed. He admitted his wrong, and he humbled himself greatly. It got so bad, he said, you know what?
[15:33] I'm not the big shot I claimed I was. I'm not the guy everybody ought to respect. I'm not the guy everybody ought to be looking at. And he acknowledged God. And when he did, he prayed to God. In the verses that we read at the very beginning, he prayed to God and said, God, is there any way, if you're real, will you get me out of here?
[15:49] If there's any way, will you deliver me? I'm sure he prayed one of those foxhole prayers where he said, God, if you'll take me back to Judah, I promise you I'll do right. And the Lord brought him back to Jerusalem and gave him his kingdom back.
[16:03] Verse 13, the last part says, Then Manasseh knew that the Lord, he was God. I think the question that ought to always come to my mind, I thought, I mean, when I'm going to preach these things, I think about my own self.
[16:15] I think about how sometimes I get so proud. I think about how sometimes I get to thinking about I'm doing pretty good and things are under control and I'm not in such need of God. I get to thinking about, hey, I don't want to get in a position where God's got to yank my ear, give me a swat, and tell me to get right with him.
[16:30] But what would it take to get you to come back? Go to verse 14. He repented and he got right. And he walked in a whole different direction. In verse 14, now after this, he built a wall without the city of David.
[16:42] And you can read, this is the guy who was tearing down everything of the city of David. This is the guy who was making fun of all the things of God. And he was captive and he was being tortured and he was being afflicted.
[16:53] He was being beaten. And now he's back in town. And when he arrived back in town, he said, Oh boy, I am not in a tear down mood anymore. I'm not into making fun of God's place anymore. It's time to build stuff for God.
[17:04] Look at what he does. In verse 15, he cleans up all the mess he made. In verse 15, he took away the strange gods and the idol out of the house of God. And all the altars that he built to the mount of the house of God in Jerusalem.
[17:15] And he cast them out of the city. Because when you really get right with God, you get rid of the junk that was in your life while you were wrong with God. Can I get an amen right there? You say to yourself, hey, I was wrong. And I'm going to straighten that up.
[17:25] I'm going to change. In verse 16, he fixed the altar. He returns the temple to its previous condition. And it says, He repaired the altar of the Lord and sacrificed their own peace offerings and thank offerings and commanded Judah.
[17:39] You know what he did? He went in and he said, I know I tore this place down. I know I put those idols in here. Get those idols out of here. Clean this mess up. Let's get everything back like it used to be. When they got it back like it used to be, he said, hey, we didn't used to worship God, but now we do.
[17:51] Get in here. I want all of you to worship God. I know I got you to do wrong. And now I'm here to get you to do right. Sad story. Verse 17.
[18:02] He got right, but his people didn't. I don't know if that has anything to do with a pastor or a king or a daddy. It's amazing. If you go down that hole, you start messing up.
[18:17] The Lord even straightens you up. He'll forgive you. He'll heal you. He'll bring you back. But the people he led never really got it totally right with God. Look at verse 17.
[18:29] He got it right. And then it says, nevertheless, the people did sacrifice still. Circle that word. Did sacrifice still in the high places. Yet unto the Lord their God only.
[18:40] So God said, I want my sacrifices done right here in my place. No high places. No groves. That's where people that worship demons do their stuff. And they said, but we like doing it our way.
[18:53] And so we'll get right. And we will only do it to God, but we'll do it the way we want to do it. Now we're so far into the Bible. We know what happens when that goes on. There was a guy one day who had an altar. He had the altar and he needed to bring it in.
[19:04] You remember David? And he needs to bring the altar back into Jerusalem and he wants to bring it in. And he decides to do it his way. And so the men just grab it and stick it on a cart and figure they can FedEx it back into Jerusalem.
[19:15] And on the way in, the cart starts wobbling. A man touches. A man gets killed. Remember the story? Because God's like, no, no, no, no. You do things my way. But they're not doing it his way. They're following the ways of the world, even in their worship.
[19:30] They had learned to worship like the heathen had worshiped. They decided they'd only worship God, but not the way God wanted to be worshiped. If they were going to worship God, they'd do it on their own terms. Well, I'm not going to go to Jerusalem.
[19:40] That's a little out of the way. I'll go on top of the hill over here. And he was still remembered for what he did, even after getting right. That's probably the horrible part. Look at 2 Chronicles 33, 19. His prayer also, and how God was entreated of him in all of his sin trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up groves and graven images.
[19:58] Before he was humbled, we wrote them down among the sands of the seers. I hate that particular verse. The guy got right. And so they wrote down and said he did get right.
[20:11] He prayed, and God heard him. But we wrote down all of his sin, and all his trespass, and all the places where he built high places, and the groves and the graven images. Before he got humbled, behold, they are written among the sands.
[20:26] His prayer and how God answered prayer, that's down. God does hear. God does answer, and God does forgive. But consequences are still there. Still remembered. Can't play with sin without getting hurt.
[20:38] And what he did before he was humbled still haunted him. One writer I read during the study this week said he spends the rest of his life trying to fix up everything he messed up. And when he died, what he messed up still, what they remember.
[20:51] He messed up, got right, tried to fix up what he messed up, but when it was over, they remembered what he messed up. I don't want to play with sin. I want to stay away from that stuff.
[21:02] I don't want to mess up like that. I'll get down to verse 21 with me if you would. Verse 21. He has really gotten his life right. Old Manasseh has gotten his life right, and he's done the right thing, and he's now died.
[21:16] And he died right. He died good. He turns out to be a good fellow in the end. And you would hope now that his son would turn out to do right. But look at verse 21. Ammon was 22 when he began to reign, and he reigned two years.
[21:29] Look at verse 22. He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as Daddy did when he was young. I hate that part of the verse. Okay, Dad.
[21:41] I'll pick the parts of your life I want to follow, and the parts I like are the parts you did when you were wicked. The parts you did when you weren't right. The parts you did before you got your life right. Look at what it says.
[21:51] Now, a lot of those images got destroyed, but when I read that verse, I thought to myself, Manasseh ought to have got busy and destroyed more images.
[22:04] Because somehow the boy digs up daddy's old images. Somehow the boy digs up daddy's old images and goes to worship him. He chose to do evil like his dad had done. He chose not to humble himself.
[22:16] Verse 23. And he humbled not himself before the Lord as Manasseh, his father, had humbled himself. It looks to me like at the dinner table when Manasseh said, I don't know, and I don't know the story here, but Manasseh and the family, if they sat down for a family dinner, which they probably didn't, because all these guys end up with a bunch of wives, a bunch of kids, a whole bunch of stupid stuff that God never wanted to happen in the very beginning.
[22:37] But they're sitting there, and Manasseh said, it looks like he could have said, I really, really messed up, and I really, really got hurt. And son, I don't want you to mess up. Because when you mess up, you really get hurt.
[22:49] I don't know what happened, but the boy decided not to follow his dad's way of humbling himself. I'd like to say something that might offend you.
[23:00] I'm going to tell you the facts. I think too often, once you get cleaned up, your history's still there, but you never show them how God brought you out of it. You never show them how God got you right. And when they hear about your sin, they want to do your sin.
[23:14] And you're trying to act all sanctimonious and holy might not be the best way. I don't know if Manasseh will talk to him, but I think he should have. I think he should have said, son, sin hurts. I think he should have said, son, sin hurts.
[23:28] Go with me to chapter 33 and verse 24 now. He didn't humble himself in verse 23. And in verse 24, it's only been two years and his servants of his own house kill him. In his house, his servants conspired against him and slew him in his own house.
[23:43] And then the next guy that's coming up, I've already worked on him again. We've already been through his life once. We're going back through it, but he's dead and killed by his own people. Those that are closest to him killed him.
[23:55] Can I just give you a few things to take home, I think, out of the story? Number one, horrible chastisement and humiliation was what it took to bring Manasseh back to God. Over the years, as a pastor, as a missionary, as a Christian, watching people, I've watched God's people grow cold and distant and pull away from God.
[24:14] And for revival to come, God had to do some pretty harsh things. I didn't make that up about them. That's their story. I think you've heard those stories. I think you've heard people talk about how they weren't saved and God had to knock them down so they'd get saved or they were saved and they pulled away and God had to knock them down so they'd come back.
[24:31] I don't want that to be our story. It's amazing. God can bring our kids back. God can bring us back. I'd like to say this to you. Don't enable those that are being hurt by sin.
[24:42] The truth is that sometimes when God's given a spanking, we step in and try to rescue them. And so God's given them a spanking and if we just let them get their rear end torn up, they come running back to God.
[24:54] But we rush over there and we try to take them in and act like nothing bad is happening and we try to befriend them and love them in their sin and what they need at that moment is not your help. They need your prayer and they need you to let God do his work.
[25:06] Let sin take its course. Let God deal with them so they'll get right with God. Here's a lesson from tonight. Godly parents often have children that turn away from the Lord. And that's not a comfort.
[25:18] But it is a comfort. Because sometimes our kids do wrong and sometimes we feel guilty about that. And sometimes we wonder if we failed. I read people talking about Manasseh and they said, well, maybe the reason Manasseh messed up is because Hezekiah got 15 extra years and Manasseh was born in the 15 years he had extra and if he hadn't have gotten extra years, he wouldn't have turned out bad.
[25:37] Well, that's a whole lot of ifs in there. That's a whole lot of ifs in there. The truth is your kids are going to have to make their own decision. I would say this to you. We become like what we follow.
[25:49] What fills our minds. Manasseh and his youth seems to follow everything the filthy heathen did. Did you know God didn't even want them to speak the names of the false gods?
[26:01] God didn't want them studying other religions. God didn't want them knowing about what they did. God didn't want them to see their worship services. God said, no, you do it my way. Because their worship might have been beautiful and their worship might have had emotion and their worship might have had a lot of things.
[26:14] Because when you go to the house of the God of the Bible, there's no idols. There's no images. Just to be blunt honest, it's a pretty bare plain house. And God said, that's what I want you to study.
[26:26] But when he studied the wrong, he did the wrong. How often do you and I allow ourselves to look at porn? Read stuff about how God might not be right?
[26:40] Check out things that attack the Bible. Probably not the wisest move on your part. Tolerance of sin can lead to your own sin.
[26:52] Tolerance of sin can lead to your own sin. Tolerance of sin can lead to your children's sin. Manasseh should have said, get that stuff out of here. Manasseh should have gotten rid of every idol so that when his boy came around, he at least had to build his own.
[27:07] I'll give you three more things. Let's raise our children to serve God. Let's raise our children. We don't have but a handful of years before they're on their own. Whether or not you realize this, your kids will soon live on their own doing exactly what they want to do.
[27:20] You can say, well, my kids will never, ever do this or that. But those of us who have grown kids can look at you and say, ha, ha, you don't know beans. You say, my kids are totally under my control.
[27:30] Bless God, they'll do what I say. They'll never go another way. I've seen tons of kids do the other. Out of the best of homes. But while we can, we need to teach some holiness. While we can, we need to teach them purity and modesty.
[27:42] While we can, we need to teach them self-denial and service. While we can, we need to show them Jesus so they can get saved, so they can learn how to follow him. While we can, because soon they'll be on their own.
[27:53] Don't make up your own God and your own worship style. No groves, no mountaintops. Go to the temple. That's what God said do. You do it his way.
[28:04] Repent and do right before the horrible consequences set in. Why in the world do I want to get hurt? Why in the world do I need to be led away through the thorns in shackles and carried away captive before I'll cry enough to come back to God?
[28:18] I don't know why. I'd like to go to Manasseh and say, if I could just tell you what's about to happen, you go ahead and repent right now real quick, because the king of Assyria is on his way over here. I'm sure he wouldn't have listened. But we could listen tonight.
[28:31] If you're saved, live life in a different direction than those that are lost. We're not like them. We're not like them. We don't think like them. We don't talk like them. We don't walk like them. We don't believe like them.
[28:42] We don't raise our kids like them. We don't raise our marriages like them. We are children of God. And that makes us totally, completely different. So I'd ask a question, mate. From Manasseh's life, what would it take to bring you back?
[28:56] What did it take? What did it take for God to get you right? So I realize, and I am talking to some of the most godly people in the world, and I realize I don't even think any of you are doing wrong. So if you think, you must think one of us needs something to bring us back.
[29:08] No, no, it's just the passage. But here is the deal. Listen to this message. So five years from now or ten years from now, when that temptation comes, you'll say, no, no, no, no, no. I know what the Word of God says, and I'm not playing with sin.