Prayer, Part 4

We are on part four of our series on prayer. But part one, we actually talk about the postures of prayer in the acrostic word ACTS. Part two, we talked about ways to have hindered prayer, ways in which our prayers can be hindered. Part three was the importance of prayer and to be serious and watchful. As 1 Peter 4 tells us. So today we are on part four and we will finish next week. Next week will actually be the components and methods of prayer as we get down to the nitty-gritty of exactly how we do prayer. How we can make it better. But today, part four, the power, the power of prayer. James 5 in verse 16 talks about the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Do we believe it? Do we believe it?

The New Living Translation actually puts that same verse as the earnest prayer of a righteous person. Man on a woman has great power and produces wonderful results.

I want to bring up today a colossal example of not only prayer but of faith. Arguably, and I will argue till I am blue in the face, that to me, and I believe after you hear the message today, you will. agree that this may be the greatest example of the power of prayer in the entire Scripture. Sometimes it takes a little background to understand. Exactly. How powerful.

Prayers that were laid out in this example in the Old Testament for all of us share. And I make that claim because this story, this example of the power of prayer was not put once, not put twice, but was put in Scripture three different books in the Old Testament. I think God wanted us to fully understand just how powerful prayer can be and how we need to call upon it more often. So does it take faith to pray? Or do you pray for faith? Or is it both? As my wife says, it's a chicken in the egg.

This example that I am talking about today is with an incredible example by a man named King Hezekiah. King Hezekiah, I would like you to turn to 2 Kings. This story is told in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and actually in Isaiah.

This gives us a little difference, adds a little thing, adds a little detail to each one. But in 2 Kings 18, I'd like you to turn to verse 5. This amazing man of faith and prayer, it says in verse 5, He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any who were before him. And he held fast to the Lord and did not depart from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord had commanded him.

Incredible example. No other king came after him. That was like him.

He had to have an incredible prayer life, incredible faith. What happened?

Something happened. I'd like you to turn over one page in my Bible, 2 Kings 18 and verse 13.

And it says in verse 13, it says, Within the 14th year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. Then Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria and Lachish, saying, I have done wrong. Turn away from me. Whatever you impose on me, I will pay. And the king of Assyria, except Hezekiah, king of Judah, 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king's house. And at that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple, of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.

Faith? What was he doing? His king said, you must pay this. What would it be in today's dollars? Between 31 and 32 million dollars. This was not some little Italy tribute. 31 to 32 million dollars! He gave out of God's house to this!

Gentile king. I looked and said, man, he's 39 years old. Maybe he was just too young to rule. Why would he do this? Who was this king Sennacherib?

I'd like to tell you.

And he is easily found in so many historical books. I have one here from the Oriental Heritage from Will Durant, History of Civilization. He goes through and actually tells us about this king and about Assyria.

And it's interesting because Durant goes in to show that at this time in Judah's life, Israel at the time, there were three stages of conquering that the Assyrians did. And at this time, I think you must understand that they were considered, or even today in history, considered the military might of the world. They were some of the greatest military leaders, tacticians, strategies that were even copied years later by the Romans. And even as early now as you look back, even Napoleon studied the Assyrian tactics of war. The Assyrians were the world power from about 900 B.C. to 961, or about 996, 690, excuse me, from 900 to 690 B.C. until they were conquered about 612 by the Medes. They were a dominating force. They had three stages of conquering. Their goal was to conquer the entire world. And at this time, they had already conquered 80% of the civilized world. They were on their way. Not yet conquered at that time was Egypt, also being controlled at that time by Ethiopia, who had conquered Egypt.

And so, Assyria's job was to go through and to go ahead and conquer Egypt, being they were one of the strongest powers at the time. But there was a land that was lying between the lands they had already conquered in Egypt, and that was Judah.

And they wanted that land. They wanted the pathways that led them straight into Egypt, that would allow them to go down to all of Africa.

And it's interesting because they would come in and they would send messages to the kings and say, We want you to become our vassal state, a vassal state where basically we'll be controlling you, but we'll let you do what you basically want to do.

You just need to be subordinate to us. And recognize that our troops will be coming through, that when we need something, we will take it. And occasionally we're going to put a little tax on you. Small, very small.

This would only last so long until they demanded more and more tribute, as they called it. So where it became like a bully taking your lunch money, they keep coming back and coming back. Because their job was to totally destroy you. But they did it one battle at a time. Then after you had decided that you couldn't pay much more, then the second stage was they wanted you to pay everything you had, as much tribute as you could come up with. When you had given all that you could, and they still demanded more and you could not pay, then came stage three, total desolation. As they would have siege ramps, they would surround your city, surround the city walls. And they would demand everything.

You might think about even commissioned salesmen. Most of you know what that is. It's a man who just works for straight commission. You might say that position started with the Assyrian army. Because wherever they traveled, if they conquered, and they did conquer 80% of the known world, if there was a great warrior who would want to fight with them, they would allow that. And so they amassed some of the most vicious men on the planet, who came there and worked for them for commission. For booty, they said. And you might find it interesting because that's where the word headcount came from, as you trace that word back. Because you see, after they were in stage three, there was no backing off. The Assyrian army would put a siege ramp around your city and try to get into the walls.

Alexander the Great conquered most of the known world because when he came into a city, if you would just bow down to him and accept his authority, and accept their teachers coming in, teaching you the Greek way, he would not devastate your city, he would not even kill your leaders.

And most people liked that, and they were willing to lay that out rather than to die.

The story is even told of Alexander the Great, as he went to conquer one city that was sitting on top of a 600-foot cliff, and as the two armies were coming out together to meet the fight, Alexander met with the other leader and said, We will conquer you, but I can save you. Many, many men, thousands and thousands of men. He said, I will show you that my men are fearless. And he had two of his leaders, not his generals, two of his other leaders, to show how fearless his men were and how they would obey. He had them get on their horses and ride as fast and hard as they could towards that 600-foot cliff and jump off that cliff. The city surrendered after seeing that as both men plunged to their death at the command of Alexander the Great. He cared about people because he wanted to rule more people. The Assyrian army in Sennacherib, King, didn't care about people except what they could do for him. The Assyrians loved to fight, battle. They were warriors. And you can go back and study their history, and you'll see that they loved to have these big meat hauls, and after war they would have all this meat and this beer and just drink for days, as also Alexander the Great did. But they would train on horses. They would train with weapons. They were, as you might say, a man's man, because that's what they were, warriors.

And this Sennacherib, I'd like to read here, page 171, and why he was so powerful, and what would happen to a city. This is what happened to many cities. They came into conflict with the Assyrian nation.

Page 271. Said, a captured city was usually plundered and burnt to the ground. This is under Assyria. And its sight was deliberately denuded by killing its trees. The loyalty of the troops was secured by dividing a large part of the spoils among them. Their bravery was ensured by the general rule of the near east, that all captives at war might be enslaved or slain. Soldiers were rewarded for every severed head they brought in from the field. So that the aftermath of victory generally witnessed the wholesale decapitation of fallen foes. Most often the prisoners, who would have consumed much food in a long campaign, would have constituted a danger and a nuisance in the rear. They were dispatched after battle. They knelt with their backs to their captors, who beat their heads in with clubs and cut them off with cutlasses. Scribes stood by to count the number of prisoners taken and killed by each soldier, and apportioned the booty accordingly. Head count. And they were paid by the head.

The nobles among the... let's see... Oh, the king, if at time permitted, presided at the slaughter king, Sennacherib. The nobles among the defeated were given special treatment. Their ears, their noses, their hands, and their feet were sliced off. And they were thrown from high towers, or they or their children were beheaded or flayed alive or roasted over a slow fire. No compunction seemed to have been felt at this waste of human life.

They actually had, as most of the Sennacherib, to Sargon, to Ash or Benipal, all those that succeeded the various kings, they all had scribes who wrote these tales of what happened, all the battles, all the head count, all the gory details, because just like most cities, they didn't want to give up everything, they would fight for a while. In Samaria, when Israel was captured, taken over, conquered by the same Assyrian army, the Assyrian nation, it's interesting, it took three years for them to actually reach the walls and get into Samaria, at which time they would, as I'll describe here, they would actually take those people, prisoners, if they wanted, and would put them on other lands, as this historical book tells us. But most of those, they liked to slaughter, because they made great stories. Slavery, as so many of these commissioned salesmen would even have a slave that would take care of all their work, man or woman, cooked for them. So you would become a slave or get.

When Asher Benepaul, page 262, suppressed the revolt of his brother and captured Babylon, after a long and bitter siege, his battle on held out. Trying to. They were hoping that maybe Egypt would come and help one of the few nations that was left. Each country was hoping that somebody else would come and help them, but they didn't. And although Egypt was left, if this succeeded in Judah with Hezekiah, they were next, and there was nothing to hold them back. So when he captured Babylon after a long siege, a city presented a terrible spectacle and shocked even the Assyrians. Most of the numerous victims to pestilence or famine lay among the streets or in a public square, a prey to the dog and the swine. Such of the inhabitants and the soldiery, as were comparatively strong, had endeavored to escape into the country, and only those remained who had not sufficient strength to drag themselves beyond the walls. Asher Benepaul pursued the fugitives, and having captured nearly all of them, vented on them the full fury of his vengeance. He caused the tongues of the soldiers to be torn out and then had them clubbed to death. He massacred the common folk in front of the great wing bulls, which had already witnessed a similar butchery half a century before under his grandfather, King Sennacherib. So at this time, after they had conquered in 721-722 Israel, they were now moving on to Judah. And then one of the last great kingdoms was Egypt left. There are amazing tablets, archeologists cannaeiform tablets, clay tablets, that attest to the historical perspective we have. You can go find the prism, which is actually a... you can find it on the Internet. Just put prism of Sennacherib. You can actually see it. There's also the Taylor prism, which are clay tablets, which they wrote down exactly what happened in all these... they conquered in all the various people and the numbers who had died. So here we have a king, as we go back to 2 Kings 18, facing the most fierce army on the planet it may have ever been. Vicious, vicious people.

And the thing was that Hezekiah knew that when they came back, they would kill everyone. They would take whatever you had off of you. Whatever gold, silver, whatever you had, they wanted it. And then these commissioned salesmen wanted to be paid. As you can imagine in Israel, when they actually took the siege, they had been waiting for 3 years to get paid. You can imagine the fury. They took upon them. But it's interesting here, we ended in 2 Kings 18 and verse 16. We ended here in verse 16, and it's interesting because in verse 17, and something that you don't know unless you study history, and that's why I wanted you in between my Bible there, between verse 16 and verse 17 is a span of somewhere between 14 and 24 months. 14 and 24 months lay between those 2 verses. So after he had given $31 to $32 billion worth of gold and silver, then they went away. But then, like the old movie, they're back. They're back. There's not any money left. The only thing is to take the city, and they prepare for stage 3. And then we come to verse 17, because it's interesting, between verse 16 and 17, that 14 to 24 months, we find there that Hezekiah was buying time. And if you go to Jerusalem to this day, you can see what is called Hezekiah's will. And it is actually where, during this time, between verse 16 and verse 17, Hezekiah knew they would be back, and they knew there would be a siege. And at that time, the thing that they like to do most is to cut off the water supply, so people starve to death.

So there was actually a well outside of the walls that they actually closed up, and Hezekiah had men with just small little tools, and it took them, they say, at least 16 to 18 months to do this. They bore 60 foot down and brought that water from that well into the city. That way, no one knew from the outside when that well was dry that there was water inside the city. And you can still go today and walk through that tunnel that was actually bore 60 foot down and all through the city to bring in water so the people would not die.

So at that point, we come to verse 17. Verse 17, because Hezekiah knew the siege was coming. They were back for more money, and there wasn't hardly any money left, except for the special tools and special objects and so forth that was used as a dedication of God. They knew what they would do with the gold that was on the Ark of the Covenant and everything else inside. They would strip it. They would destroy the temple. They would destroy the city. Burn it to ground! And then a lot of times they would actually afterwards sow salt. They would bring tons of salt so that everything was dead around that city. And they loved to take poles. They would have these slaves take these poles, just like you would use in a garden to hang tomatoes on. And they would run these poles, and there would be thousands and thousands of these poles leading from the city that they conquered, about four foot apart, enough to get a horse and a rider through. And on each of these poles was a severed head. So that when somebody came across one of the cities they conquered, it was fear, utter fear, utter fear of what kind of people would do this, as you saw these thousands and thousands of heads lying on poles outside of the cities.

Terrifying sight. So with that we go to verse 17. Said, Then the king of Assyria sent the tardis, the rabs Saris, and the rab Shaka. The rab Shaka, these are not names, these are titles. The rab Shaka we would consider today a general in an army. He had complete control over the entire army. The rabs Saris and the tartan were just like a carnal and a major. But the rab Shaka had complete control. The rab Shaka was a supreme commander. He was cunning, he was intelligent. He spoke three different languages. And his religion was the occult.

Some of the actual statements here in the Bible, on this part here, of the mental, psychological warfare that is used here by the rab, that is used here by the rab, until he talked at the war for the United States Army. This is part of the history they studied, the psychological effect that takes place here, because he was amazing at what he did, and how he said, and how he put fear. He said then, King of Assyria sent the tartan, the rab Saris, and the rab Shaka from Lachish. Lachish was actually a Judean city, a fortress that was 25 miles southeast of Jerusalem. So they were laying siege to this city.

With a great army against Jerusalem in Hezekiah. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they came and stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, which was on the highway to the Fuller's Field, which actually, if you understood what that means, it describes the water that was no longer there, from an aqueduct that was actually shipped into the city now from Hezekiah as well. Verse 18, And when they had called to the king, Elaakim, the son of Hezekiah, who was over the household, Shedna the scribe and Joah, the son of Esau, the recorder came out to meet them.

They had three men there with the rab Shaka being the main speaker. Here was three leaders sent out from behind the walls to meet with the rab Shaka. Then the rab Shaka said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king of Assyria, What competence is this in which you trust? You speak of having counsel and strength of war, but they are vain words. And in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? Now look, you are trusting in the staff of a broken reed Egypt, on which if a man leans it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who trust in him. He knew that they were hoping that Egypt would come and help them, because they were the last nation standing before Egypt.

But if you say to me, We trust in the Lord God, We trust in the Lord our God. Is it not he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, You should not worship before this altar in Jerusalem? Isn't this... See, he understood. He knew what was going on behind the walls. And he's saying, Wait a minute. Here are all these altars, and Hezekiah has told the Torah to tear down, and you've torn these down, and, Wait a minute, don't you even worship your God? I thought you worshiped Him, because other nations, they put little temples and little statues and everything up all over the world. They carry Him wherever. The more you have, the more God you have. Why would you tear Him down? You're following this lunatic? Now, therefore I urge you, give a pledge to my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able, on your part, to put riders on them. How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master's servants and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Have I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it?

The Lord said to me, He didn't wrap chakras saying, Dear God, talk to me! You know what He said? He said, Go up against this land and destroy it! Because as you can see, this beautiful wall that was around, that they were standing outside, you can imagine all the people breathing hard because they're looking at this vast army, and now they're ready to chop their heads off, ready to come in and break those walls. They can hear what He's saying, as He's saying it loud, so everyone can hear, put more fear into these people, those who trust in this God, this Lord who told me to come up and destroy it. Then Helikim, son of El-Kiah and Shepna and Joah, said to the rab-shaka, Please speak to your servants in Aramaic language, for we understand it and do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall. They knew what this would be doing to the people, and He was speaking in Hebrew, so all the people could hear it. But the rab-shaka said to them, Has my Master sent me to your Master and to you to speak these words and not to the men who sit on the wall who will eat and drink their own waste with you?

Series. Mind. Set. Then the rab-shaka stood and called out in a loud voice in Hebrew and spoke saying, Hear the word of the great King, the King of Assyria. Thus says the King, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you from his hand. Deliver you from his hand. Nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us. This city shall not be given into the hand of the King of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the King of Assyria, Make peace with me by a present, by a tribute, and come out to me, and every one of you eat from his own vine, and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you shall drink the waters of his own sister. He's quoting something that Isaiah was writing about the kingdom. How did he know that?

Until I come and I take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive groves and honey, that you may live and not die. But do not listen to Hezekiah, lest he persuade you, saying, The Lord will deliver us, as any of the gods of the nations have all delivered its land from the hand of the King of Assyria. Where are the gods of Hamoth and Arphon? Where are the gods of Sephiram and Hinnah and Iva? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from Myan? Samaria had all these gods? It's supposed to be the same god you had, worshipping Yahweh? Where was he in Samaria when I conquered that land? Who among all the gods of lands have delivered their countries from Myan? That the Lord shall deliver Jerusalem from Myan. But the people held their peace and answered him not. A word for the King's command was, Do not answer them. And Elakam, the son of Ilkiah and Shebna and Joah, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rab Shaka.

It was serious. It was serious. It's interesting, by this time, this one Rab Shaka had conquered 89 cities, 820 villages, and taken 200,000 people prisoners, not counting the ones he had slaughtered. So as you can imagine why they tore their clothes, they knew it was serious. And if you stood in his face, this man who had slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people, and you saw that face and that confidence, how would you have felt if you were Shebna?

Hmm. For Elakam. And so in verse 19, verse 1, And so it was when King Hezekiah heard it that he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. And he sent Elakam, who was over the household Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos.

And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble and rebuke, and a blasphemy, for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the Rav Chaka, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the Lord your God has heard.

Therefore lift up your prayer. Effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that has left. So the servants of Hezekiah came to Isaiah. And Isaiah said to them, Thus you shall say to the master, Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, which your servants of the king of Assyria blaspheme. Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall pray rumor and return to his own land, which was true.

And you see in verse 8 how the Rav Chaka returned. So the Rav Chaka returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libna. Libna is actually ten miles north of Lachish, another Judean city, that the king of Assyria, Sennacherib, was having trouble fighting with. So they wanted to go ahead and get that siege over with. So they actually left. They said he departed from Lachish. And in verse 9 it says, The king heard concerning Tarkanaka, the king of Ethiopia. Look who has come out to make war against you.

So here we have, as the war machine left, and they know they'll be back, because they're just going to go in and then take Libna. And they're hoping they would hear something from the king of Egypt that would help them out. But it wasn't coming. So Sennacherib sends another letter to Hezekiah, written out, saying, Okay, we're about to finish here, and guess what?

We're coming down. We want the city. We're done playing around. It's finished. And when Hezekiah read the letter, there's something he did that gives us an important lesson for each and every one of us. In verse 14, and said, Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. Then Hezekiah prayed. Hezekiah prayed. Effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

And this is what he said, and I hope you will never forget where this is at. Because this is something that we should all learn from this prayer. Something that may we want to put in our prayers. Have you ever had a letter you spread out before God? I have. Maybe it's a good lesson for us when that bill comes in that we don't know how in the world we're going to be able to pay. Maybe it's time to lay it out before God and take it there to Him.

Maybe it's a job notice that you're going to be laid off. Maybe it's something that you need to lay out before God. The power of prayer is awesome. And Hezekiah said, O Lord God of Israel, the one who dwells between the caravans, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdom of the earth, You have made heaven and earth. Adoration? Incline Your ear, O Lord. And do what? Hear! Hear! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see and hear the words of Sennacherib, which He has sent to reproach the living God.

Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste to nations in their lands and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were not gods, but the works of man's hands, wood and stone. Therefore, they have destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord, our God, I pray, I pray, save us from His hand. Why? Because I don't want to die. Why? Because I don't want to have to go through pain. Why? Because it's the right thing to do. No. Look, we're Hezekiah's minds. It's all about glorifying God.

And we must never, ever forget that. It's not about us. It's about Him. That He may be glorified. I pray, save us from His hand. That all the kingdom of the earth may know that you are the Lord God. You alone. How powerful is that? How powerful is that prayer? Where did this come from? You know what's interesting? You go back to Chapter 18. There's a lot of reading, but hopefully you will enjoy reading this story again and again and again as it gives you examples of the power of prayer. But the second... Second Kings 18, verse 1. We get the beginning of the story.

See, at this time, there's a story I just read. Hezekiah was 39 years old. When he became king, he was 25 years of age. His father was a wicked, wicked man! Read about his father. How did this young man come to change everything? I think it starts. And it gives us an example right here as it talks about Hezekiah. Second Kings 18, verse 1. Now, I came to pass in the third year of Hezekiah, the son of Eli, king of Israel, that Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz. See what kind of king he was. King of Judah began to reign. He was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was...

Abbe, the daughter of Zachariah. If you have a wicked father and you turn down pretty decent, I'm going to say it's a good chance that Abbe had a lot to do with him being the man that he became. Mothers never, never overlook the impact you have. The Bible teaches you that you can change the world one person at a time. And in verse 3 it said, And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.

He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden images and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made. For until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it. Verse 5, that we'd said already, He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him there were none like him. Incredible account. I'd like you to turn over to 2 Chronicles now. 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 20.

It's time to do a half. 2 Chronicles 28. 2 Chronicles 28, verse 1. Here it says, this is his father. This was King Ezzekiah's father. Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord as his father David did. For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and he made moldy images for the balls.

He burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his own children in the fire, according to the abomination of the nations that the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. I'd like you to go over to chapter 29 as we jump through this rather quickly now. Because we see the mindset of this young man named Hezekiah at 25 years of age, chapter 29, verse 2.

And so Hezekiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, when he first took over, the very first month, what did he do? He was a leader! He opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. Then he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them in the east square, and said to them, Hear me, Levites!

Now, sanctify yourselves. Sanctify the house of the Lord, God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place. For our fathers have transgressed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord. They have forsaken Him and have turned their faces away from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs on Him. Now, look what they did in verse 15. Verse 15, and He said, They gathered their brethren, sanctified themselves, and went according to the commandment of the King, at the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord. Then the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, to cleanse it, and brought out all the debris, the garbage, the rubbish, the trash.

They had found in the temple of the Lord, to the court of the house of the Lord. Was that teach us? Because He's preparing these people for Passover. He's preparing to say, let's clean the temple. Let's get things ready for God so we can worship God as He commanded us to do, as He's commanded us to do.

Cleanse our hearts. We are the temple of God, brethren. 1 Corinthians 3 and 6, all through the New Testament, says, we are the temple of God. It's time before the spring holidays to clean out the temple of God.

Hezekiah, as you can read the rest of the chapter there, as He restores temple worship, they get ready. They're back worshiping God in chapter 30, verse 1. And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and to Judah, and also letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, who are not even His territory, that they should come to the house of the Lord of Jerusalem to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel, for the kings and their leaders and all the congregation of Jerusalem had agreed to keep the Passover in the second month. For they could not keep it at that time, because a sufficient number of priests had not sanctified themselves, nor that the people gathered together in Jerusalem. And the matter pleased the king and all the people, so they resolved to make a proclamation throughout all Israel from Beersheba to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel, since they had not done so in a long time in the prescribed manner. And in verse 13, Now many people were very great congregationalists, assembled at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month. Mmm! They were keeping it. And verse 21, So the children of Israel who were present in Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness. And the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing to the Lord, accompanied by loud instruments, and Hezekiah gave encouragement to all the Levites who taught the good knowledge of the Lord, that they ate throughout the feast seven days, offering peace offerings and making... Confessions. Prayer. Prayer. Of the Lord their God, their fathers. Then the whole assembly agreed to keep the feast another seven days, and they kept it another seven days with gladness. Then it says in verse 25, The whole congregation of Judah rejoiced, also the priests and the Levites. All the congregation that came from Israel, the sojourners who came from the land of Israel and those who dwelt in Judah. So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon, the son of David, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. Then the priests, the Levites, arose and blessed the people, and their voices were heard, and their... Their prayer came up to His holy dwelling place, all the way up to the third heaven, to God.

What a leader! The power of prayer! A fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. A righteous person avails much. In verse 31. We've got chapter 31, verse 1, as we wrap this up. I just have another thing to look at. It says in verse 1, Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, broke the cities' pieces, cut down the wooden images, and threw down the high places and the altars, from all Judah, Benjamin, Ethan, and Manasseh.

They got the people so carried away, they left their own countries and started destroying all the...the Baal worship and all the temples and everything else in these other countries. These women took care of it. There was a movie back in the...back in the 1970s called Walking Tall, about Buford Pusser, a sheriff in Tennessee. And at the end of the movie, it kind of shows that after he cleans and stuff up, how all the people realized how bad it had gotten.

And all the people, all the people in the city all got together and they went and burnt these prostitution houses down. Power. And he's a leader because he prays and because he has faith in God. That's what this amazing story tells of Hezekiah. In chapter 31, verse 20, He said, Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was right and good and true before the Lord his God.

And in every work that he began in the service of the house and the law and in the commandment to speak, I did with all, what with all his heart. And so he prospered. And it says in chapter 32, verse 1, After these deeds of faithfulness, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and entered Judah.

He encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win it. Bring you up to date. Now he's back. Sennacherib came. The ramshaka came. They're all here now. It's time to take care of Judah. And what Hezekiah, Sos, and Acherid had come, and that his purpose was to make war. He took counsel with his leaders to stop the waters from the springs of the outside.

And it's verse 4, Thus many people gathered together, and they stopped all the water, as I told you earlier. And then verse 6, Then he sent military captains over the people, gathered them together with him, and the open square of the city gate gave them encouragement, saying, Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, nor dismayed, before the king of Assyria. Know it before all the multitude that is with him. For there are more with us than with him. Remind you of somebody else? Him is an arm of flesh. He is the Lord our God, to help, to fight our battles.

And the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah, the King of Judah. And we finish the story. If you return back to 2 Kings 19, because the end of the story, such an incredible story, all ended with one verse. 2 Kings 19, verse 35, It said, And it came to pass on a certain night, and according to Jewish tradition and history, this actually was on Pass overnight. Can't prove that in the Scripture. But it says, It came to pass on a certain night, that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians, 185,000 people.

And when the people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses. They were all dead. 185,000. And it said, So Sanacharim, verse 36, King of Assyria, departed and went away, returned home, and remained adenom. The power, the power of prayer, the mindset, the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. There is power in prayer. But the one thing we can learn from Hezekiah, first he obeyed, and then he prayed.

See, he had faith that this was God, that He was worshiping the God of the entire universe, the only God. Do we have that same faith? Do we know why we worship? Do we know why we're here today? And do we praise God? Because He is God. We have that faith. We obey, then we pray. We've got problems in our lives. We've got sickness. We obey. We pray. We have faith in God. And we leave it in His hands.

And we say, Your will be done. The power of prayer. Do we have it? Do we use it? Faith in God, and prayer in God. We have no choice. This is our walk. This is our way. This is our God.