Sunday Sermon by Pastor Rajesh Mathew, 27 Feb 2022;

2 Kings 18: 1-7- He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses. 7 The Lord was with him; he prospered wherever he went. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.;

• This portion of the scripture is about a king named Hezekiah. Hezekiah king is spoken of in the following chapters in this book, in 2 Chronicles 29 to 32 chapters and also in the Book of Isaiah 36th chapter to 39th chapter talks about this anointed man of God. 11 chapters are dedicated to this man. There must be something special that the Holy Spirit would have anted us to know about him if so many chapters in the Bible were dedicated to him. What is its significance?;
• The new testament refers to Lot’s wife by saying “remember LOT’s wife”. The Holy Spirit did not see it important to even write the name of that lady. She is not even worth mentioning. She was insignificant. Why? She left her great future and turned back to the world.
• Do not turn back to the world, God has a great future and great deliverance for you. The angels of God have descended for the salvation of you family. Do not make light of this. Do not turn bac this morning.;
• In 2 Kings 18 starts with the name of his father, Ahaz. Hezekiah was his son. Who was Ahaz? For 16 years, he ruled but he was the evilest of the kings. He did things out of the Word of God. There was great spiritual deterioration under his reign. It was in such a family, that a generation that followed Jesus was born (Hezekaiah). It doesn’t matter what family background you come from. May be your parents are idolatrous and idol worshippers, may be our forefathers were evil but if you believe you are one of them that the Lord Himself has raised up, glorify Him.;

It doesn't matter what your circumstances are. It doesn't matter what bondages and demonic strongholds work within your family but God has kept a supernatural future for you. A future of hope and glory. Take it and believe it. All bondages over your family is broken. Let the fire of God descend upon your household this day, in Jesus Name.

Generational bondages over your family be broken this morning in Jesus Name.;

• Ahaz did what God did not want him to do.
• In 2 kings 18, we also hear about Hezekiah mother- His mother’s name was Abi[a] the daughter of Zechariah. 3 Abi is his mother. She was a woman of prayer. She desired to serve God. And because of that, she was blessed with Hezekiah served God. She is one who influenced Hezekiah
• When Ahaz died, the nation for 16 years died spiritually and morally because they did what was against God.

Hezekiah “chose what was right”. At the age of 25 when he became king, he took a decision to please God.;

• Do that which is right before God. I want to decide to choose that which pleases God. Behind this decision, the grace of God descended into that decision. The Holy Spirit Will come to help you today if you make that decision.;
• Jesus came to earth to please the Father. I always do the things that which pleases my father. Circumstances did not lead Him to His decisions. Jesus said I came to do your will and fulfil your desire. What is pleasing to the Father I will do, Jesus thought.

That which is pleasing to the Father, That I will do!;

Be careful of the decisions you make in life. It will affect your future. We are all challenged by decisions. We need to take the right decisions in life, in any matter.;

How do you take the right decisions?

1. A spiritual test- Does my decision align with the Word of God;
2. The integrity test, where your motives are exposed. Is it for God's glory or my glory? Are my belief systems and actions of life aligned well with each other? Is it opposite to my faith? 3. Impact Test-How will this decision affect me? How will it affect my family, my church? It might look nice, look like a good opportunity but will it hurt my mother and father, my child, my church?;

• Joshua took a decision that as for me and my household we will serve the living God. • Does it bring honour to my church?;

2 Tim 4- Paul says that Demas in love with the present world, has left me.

• Stay with Paul. Stick with him. Don't leave when storms come. God will help you. Your future and ministry is there. People often leave during testing times. Take the right decisions in these times. Many people take wrong decisions and leave out great consequences for years over people’ lives. But take the decision that please God and if you do, God's hand will move upon me.;

4. Improvement test- Will the decision improve me spiritually?;

1 Corinthians 10:23- 23 All things are lawful [a]for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things [b]edify.;

• Not everything will help me grow spiritually. All decisions whether it is about studies, business, whatever, these are simple practical steps. Your decisions should glorify God, may your decisions steer you into your destiny, may your decisions that are going to be Christ centred and decisions that will take you from glory to glory and victory to victory, from faith to faith.;
• One more thing- Always take counsel from your spiritual mentor on all important decisions. Some decisions you may not be able to correct it later on. I have seen that some people have taken decisions that can trouble them for 15- 20 years!;
• Let me have truth in my heart, let me handle this well Lord. Open your heart and tell the Lord, let me have the right relationship with you Lord.
• Hezekiah sought the Lord and took the right decisions. The nation was blessed, the level of that nation changed, the wealth came, the worship of Levites was restored, His glory descended there.
• Cain and Abel went to the farm together but Cain took a decision to kill Abel and he ended up running all through his life.

In the midst of all the trouble that Hezekiah’s family was facing, he took the right decisions.

• Dead fish will go with the flow but only a live fish will swim against the flow. Don’t go with the flow, going wherever people are taking you. but you and I are living fish. We are alive! No matter how tempting the call of the world is, you will swim against it.
• Many of you have decided that you won’t come to church since COVID struck. You feel it is fine to watch the service in YouTube.;
• Jesus said, “in the last days, do not neglect the habit of meeting together.” Whenever you have the opportunity, come to church.
• Many will say I don’t want to and would rather sit at home.
• Hezekiah opened the temple doors again. The Holy Spirit has opened the church once gain. The waste and junk were thrown out, the worship was restored and the altars were put in place and the sacrifices were made. Decide, I will fast and pray, I will worship you and stay in your presence.;
• There are two kinds of life- lived lives and unlived lives. There are people who have not lived their lives and there are people who have lived their lives. Hezekiah lived his life.

It doesn’t matter how blessed you are, you can get better. There are much better things that God has kept for you.

• Many people are thinking they won’t live but they will die. These thoughts are put by the devil. But the Holy Spirit is pulling out such thoughts from your heart.

I will cling to the Lord and He will deliver me!;

• Put into flame. It is your flame. You need to fan it to flame. Paul said this to Timothy. Pastor doesn’t need to pump air into every Sunday but you need to fan that flame by yourself. Let your altar again be on fire. It is your responsibility. The circumstances will try to put it off. • Not everyone is happy when you are happy.;
• King Hezekiah opened the temple, sacrificed on the altar and the fire came down again. The priests began to minister. In your life too, let such restoration come into your life.;

In 2022, let the Holy Spirit chuck out all the waste and the rubble from your life and let the fire of the Holy Spirit burn once again inside of you.;

Beyond COVID-19, God has kept an ACTS 19 for His church. The anointing of the fire that will shake cities and nations and the fire that will steer into your destiny and calling.;

• Fan into flame. I am getting into the ACTS 19 fire. It was in that fire that 50000 shekels worth silver coins were burned by the black magicians (that was a lot of money! 30 silver shekels were enough to buy land, imagine 50000 shekels!). So great was the presence of God that adultery and black magic was destroyed by the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Fan into flame the Holy Spirit.;

In John 11, the Lord asked people to untie Lazarus after he called him out of the tomb. Some people have tied themselves up after the lockdown. Untie yourself and untie your family.

Christianity is not religion, it is a walk of life. For fire of God to burn, to remove poverty of a nation, to see God’s hand come upon another generation, it is not about just going to heaven but even while you are here on the earth it is a way of life. Hezekiah took a decision to open the temple, pray and worship and sacrifice unto the Lord. With that happening, the level of that nation changed.;

If you pray, your level will change!;

• When Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden and God asks Adam whether he ate the fruit, he blames eve for it. When God asks eve, she says, it was the serpent. What eve said was actually true! It was the serpent. The Lord is raising women in this church who will say that! Fan into flame. Behind my struggles is a devil. Break off those bondages in Jesus name.;
• One of the pastors that I met in Delhi was telling me something. In the past the demons would put out its tongue, scream and pull out hair etc but today the demons have learnt manners. Today it manifests like autism, mental depression etc.

The challenges that you face are caused by certain demons.;

• Think about it, when the man who acted mentally ill came to the Lord, did the Lord say go get treated for schizophrenia? NO! He cast out the legion of demons in Jesus Name! Let mental sicknesses leave this morning.;

Fan into flame. Where fire comes, darkness leaves.;

• Fire doesn’t wait for darkness to leave but when the fire comes, darkness will leave. • Certain financial blocks are caused by the devil. An anointed man of God had once said, devil put my money back. I thought this was prosperity gospel. One day when I was prying for a financial breakthrough, God asked me to say that to the devil. Put my money back devil.

No more devil. Jesus is my God. The Holy Ghost is my companion.;

Through me my nation will be blessed, through my decisions my nation will be blessed.;

2 kings 18:5- 3 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. 5He trusted in the LORDGod of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. 6For he held fast to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses. 7 The LORD was with him; he prospered wherever he went. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel.;

We see that in verse 3, King Hezekiah made the right decisions, in verse 5, he trusted God, in verse 6, He took refuge in God and in verse 7, he prospered!