TurnAround Prayers: Stop Dying, Start Living // Ps Joshua Siaw

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[Music] as i start i want to just ask a question how have you prayed in desperate times there was once uh this man who was hiking and he ran into a grizzly bear and uh you know this bear started chasing him and and and so he ran for dear life he just crashed blindly in the woods and he finds himself on the edge of the cliff right with a deep canyon steep fall nowhere to go behind him the bear is rapidly catching up in desperation he just cries out to the heavens and says god could you please make this bear a christian and to his surprise you know the bear suddenly drops down to its knees hands in a posture of prayer and goes heavenly father thank you for this meal that i'm about to partake desperate times and desperate prayers as we continue in this series on the turnaround prayers you know we come to a passage of scripture in second kings and uh it is about a city jerusalem under siege the enemy are is at the gates the assyrian army is ready to wipe them out and they are in seriously desperate circumstances um because it is only a matter of time before the city falls what happens during the inhabitants we don't know for sure but history tells us that the assyrians were known for their brutality so if you weren't killed in the fall of the city perhaps a fate that is worse than death is really to be captured and tortured by the assyrians now in the midst of all this the king king hezekiah cries out to the lord in desperate prayer and he says god deliver us deliver us from the assyrian armies who are here to wipe us out and god hears he not only hears that prayer but he comes through an incredible miraculous way there is a turnaround because not long after that god sends his angel into the assyrian camp at night and it tells us in in in chapter 19 you know that uh that that that by morning a hundred and eighty five thousand troops are dead this is a massive blow to the syrian army so much so that they are forced to retreat return to their homeland and what happens to the king of the syria senator rip he is killed by his own sons a miraculous turnaround now i know many of us probably are not in the same desperate life and death kind of situations but perhaps some of us have experienced times where we feel the walls are closing in and really our options are out the window maybe some of us have experienced times where our hope is fading and our dreams are die maybe some of us even today you feel like you're stuck in a place with nowhere to go and you can't move forward backwards left or right well i've got good news for you today because as we look at the prayer of king hezekiah in second kings 19 verses 14 to 19 we will begin to learn and see from this prayer how god can begin to breathe new life into our situation today so that we can go from stopping dying and to start living now if you're excited about this word as i am today just say a big amen so that i know that you're with me i hear you even online here this morning and so i'm gonna get right into it you know there are three things that i want to unpack and share with us on how we can learn from hezekiah's prayer in dire times and the first is this it is to look up everyone say look up and the the whole idea of this is really to acknowledge the reality of the situation that we're in but we appeal to a higher authority what was the reality that king hezekiah faced you see he had done everything that he possibly could as a king up to this point we read in in the the scriptures uh prior to this that you know he has fortified the city he has built weapons he has reorganized his people you know what uh you know he's cut off water supply for the enemy he has tried to make alliances with egypt he's even tried appeasing the syrians by giving them you know his treasury but all that did was delay the inevitable and you know what if it came down to an all-out clash between the assyrians and the armies uh you know they were no match for this army who had already captured other cities in judah and also conquered other nations and so where does your help come from in such a situation you know when we face difficult circumstances impossible situations you know oftentimes at worst we go into this place of a pit right it's like a downward spiral it's it's a place of despair denial and and fear you know at best you know some of us will brace ourselves for the inevitable we will try to squeeze out every ounce of knowledge wisdom our own strength to try to find a solution but when we do this you know what we forget that our advocate our greatest advocate and our source of strength is right around the corner it's very much like this story of of a young boy who was playing in the yard at home and he was trying to move this this big stone i mean to him it was probably a rock you know because of his size and and he tried and tried because it's getting away in the way of his play toys and things like that and the dad was watching this from the house he observed as a little boy was just trying with all his mind all different ways until finally the dad comes out and he says son have you used all of your strength and the boy says in frustration cries out yes i have and the dad said well no actually you haven't because you haven't asked for my help our greatest advocate and source of strength and source of help it doesn't come from ourselves it comes from the lord can somebody say amen so hezekiah knows this he knows this and therefore with everything that is happening around him he goes to god in prayer for deliverance how does he begin to pray you know what is it that we can learn from our own lives in how to pray in similar circumstances let me just share a few things about his approach number one he spread the message before god what is this message that he spreads before god a few verses before this we are told that the king of assyria sends him a message and let me just read this to you it says don't let your god in whom you trust deceive you with promises that jerusalem will not be captured by the king of assyria you know perfectly well what the kings of assyria have done wherever they have gone they have completely destroyed everyone who stood in their way why should you be any different this is the new living translation of verses 10 of chapter 19 and after hezekiah receives this message he reads it and it says in verse 14 that he comes up to the temple and spreads the message before the lord now you read that very descriptive act that king hezekiah did spreading out the message before the lord why is this significant it is significant because that message was meant for him for him the king of israel the most powerful man in the kingdom as he begins to spread the message before the lord it is a symbolic act of acknowledging who is the true king of israel this message is directed to me yes but i'm not the real king you are the true king of god and so this is an act of humility and surrender before the lord that is the power of what he did that day and so in the same way you know what when we pray this is the posture that we come in humility in surrender before the lord when we're facing a crisis you know what we come before the lord without any sense of pride we throw that away without any sense of control we throw that away we come to the lord with whatever we have in our hands and we go lord our finances my finances it's it's not mine it's yours no my my workplace my business god you are the true owner i am your steward i am your servant god my my family my my marriage even my children oh god you you are the one who holds it all it's humility it is surrender so this is the first thing as we come to god in a posture of humility and surrender but the second thing is this he declares god as the ultimate authority look and see what hezekiah begins to declare he says right at the beginning of his prayer he says you alone are god of all kingdoms of the earth you alone created the heavens and the earth not only does king hezekiah place god in his rightful place and thrown him as king over israel over his own life but he places him in his rightful place over all the kingdoms of the earth he says you are god of the heavens and the earth you are the creator of the universe you are the ultimate authority and it is because of that you are the one that i appeal to he declares so we come firstly in a posture of humility and surrender but we come in worship and in exaltation and in adoration of a god who is like no other you alone and then he puts reality in perspective all the reality that we talked about just now you know he says yes it's true he says it is true you know the syrian army is great the syrian army has put you know all these nations he's conquered them he's burned all the false gods yes basically assyria has conquered but but a huge but they were false gods created by human hands in other words you know of course you know these these nations were conquered their gods could never protect them in the first place but you o god you alone are the true and living god and therefore we can trust in you you see how hezekiah now begins to shift from a place of despair possibly a place of fear and he begins to move and come in faith before god and so in the same way we come in humility we come in surrender we come in worship we come in faith moving from but why god is this happening to me but god is able amen hallelujah and that's why you see us as believers as christians we may face impossible circumstance we may face difficult situations you know what our business deals may may have fallen through you know what we have received a bad report from the doctor we've been passed over time and time again from for promotion we may even be on the verge of bankruptcy and yet we believe but god he is the ultimate authority he is the source of my help he is my refuge you see it is he who has the final word can somebody say amen it is only when we begin to look up that we can begin to see past our mountains of oppression and overcome hallelujah look up that's the first thing turn to your neighbor right now even online and say look up look up look up and the second thing is this look beyond everyone say beyond and the idea behind it is this that the battle before you is never just physical we talked a lot about the armies of assyria we talk about the physical problems and the logistics all of that but it's never just physical every mountain you will face every battle that you have to go through is never just physical what battles was hezekiah facing as king you see it was not just his city on the siege but also his mind and his emotions he is the king you understand it is not just that he's facing death on a personal level he's facing death for his family his dynasty his people his kingdom that is immense and so he has to face all this not only does he face possibly the end of his reign but the end of israel i mean i i don't want ever to be placed in such a a position where i have to be responsible for so many can you imagine that weight that he had to hold and right now you know the enemy comes and adds salt to the wound you know saying that you are you know mistaken your god is just like every other god you know he will not protect you and he tries to plunge him further into fear and despair i think it's not a stretch to assume at this point that our king hezekiah could possibly even be on the verge of mental emotional meltdown i know i probably would so how did he stop this slide how did he he break through mentally and emotionally in such a situation where there's no way out where every possibility is just closed off to him well here's the thing that he realizes he knew that even though all physical avenues of victory were closed off to him the door to god remained open it remained open and that's why he did not allow fear to paralyze him as he read the message he received it yes but then he went to the door that was open to him and that was god he went to the temple he went up to the temple it tells us sometimes when we are in a dark place ourselves it's difficult to see the way out of our current situation you know and and and one of the worst things that that can happen in that in these kinds of times is to lose hope because you think about it you know when you reach that point in your life where you lose hope you begin to just let go of everything you you just slide down and you and it's like what's the point of doing anything of trying anything you just give up you know you that that's the worst thing really that can happen it's very much like like uh this town called flagstad in in maine all right in the in the united states and um this is not a picture of me but it's just a picture of a random town but this was a real town in the 1950s and this town was actually going to be flooded as part of a hydroelectric dam construction and so the entire town was going to be flooded and and it was going to be you know part of a large lake so that they can power the hydroelectric damage so the town itself was going to be wiped out it had to be evacuated and so on months before even this town was flooded improvements and repairs all stopped because what's the point of repairing something when it's going to be wiped out anyway and slowly you know the city the the town just became more and more run down you know and and life began to just bleed out of this of this town see here's the point when there's no hope for the future there's no power in the present that's why we need to continue to build and hold on to the eternal hope that we have in jesus amen and prayer prayer is a powerful way to build our hope in god why is this because prayer allows us to look beyond it allows us to engage our spirit we get in touch with god when we engage in our spirits with god it is revived and through our spirit's revival then our soul can begin to heal see that is why prayer is so powerful it is it is it is not in the in the prayer method itself so to speak but it is the power of prayer is not in the one who says it it is in the one who hears it it is not in the one who says it it is in the one who says it isaiah 58 verses 9 tells us that he who calls upon the lord the lord hears and the lord will answer and that's why we need to keep praying it is in prayer that hope is built we need to keep praying it doesn't matter you know how awkward your prayer is how long or short your prayer is this is a very short prayer by the way those of you who think you know you have to pray for hours on end just to get god to hear you it doesn't you know your prayers may be forced it may be weak by your prayers i want to tell you today some of you have been praying for a very long time and you have been in this situation just hanging on to hope in god keep praying keep praying because your prayers make a difference i want to encourage you guys today come to god in prayer keep praying in jesus name amen hallelujah i don't know who who that particular word i was for but i just felt to to say that our prayers your prayers make a difference what can you do you know some of the practical things what can you do you can sing and pray in tongues you know what you can speak god's promises over your life you can play you know you don't have to be musical like you know all those guys here who are just so amazingly talented just you know play the live stream recording after this or you know a play a worship anointed song some of the best times i've had with the lord personally really have been alone in the car park somewhere having the music turned on and and those were times of such real intimacy with the lord it is his presence he's waiting for each and every one of us there which brings me to the second point he did not allow fear to paralyze him number one but secondly hezekiah made god his hiding place he came to meet god alone and this was his hiding place see let me let me give you an illustration of of what sometimes can happen to it to us um we all know potholes anybody like potholes i i don't um and uh here uh you know it can be a little bit of a sore spot for us here in the east malaysia with the condition of the roads but uh you know every time it it rains heavily we go through a rainy season these holes start appearing in the ground and and sometimes the annoyance you know you drive around them sometimes they're actually a little bit dangerous because with these puddles of water actually you don't know how deep they go they can you know wreck your your tire but sometimes these potholes are not just caused by bad weather they are caused by something more serious that is happening beneath the surface sometimes these potholes if are not taken care of properly become sinkholes and this is the danger of it you see for each and every one of us we have potholes in our lives we have potholes that are caused by trauma we have cot holes that are caused by pain things other people have said to us you know mistakes that we have in our lives the danger of this is when we begin to try and fill these potholes with activity and and you know addiction these are the things that we go to to hide and escape when we don't want to face the pain of our story or the pain of our life we cover it and that is where the danger comes because i'm not even talking about you know vices like when you think about gambling or you think about addiction i'm talking about things like how social media feed you know finding ourselves just itching to have our hands towards our phone i'm really talking about myself you know and sometimes when you reach out in the morning it's not just to press snooze on your phone but it's to check your notification and just maybe just doom scroll for a little while you know sounds a little bit uh addictive to me i'm talking about the simple things like stress eating i'm talking about you know our cravings you know for food and sweet stuff and fast food some of you are smiling because you relate with me you know i'm talking about about you know those moments where we go on to shopping and just feel the urge to buy something not because you know there's a sale or not because you know we need something but because we just want to feel like oh we put some money down and we got that dopamine hit you know am i just getting a little bit real some of you are really laughing right now phil pothos some of us hide behind our busyness thinking that all this physical activity that we're doing all this good work that we're doing in our work you know providing for our family even church work oops i went there um you know hides how emotional our mental needs until the day when it all comes crashing down what are signs of things that are happening deeper beneath the surface i don't want to take other examples except maybe uh some things from my own life you know i find sometimes when when god is trying to get my attention i i find myself lashing out um you know for no good reason really i find myself highly irritable you know at small things like traffic jams or just waiting in line at the supermarket skimming time with god mind constantly racing affecting your sleep possibly these are signs that god possibly wants to bring us to something deeper to look beyond the physical to what is happening in under the surface what does hezekiah do you see he met with god alone away from all the voices away from all the distractions away from everyone and anything else except him and god and he brought his accusations the ridicule before god i read this verse inside his prayer and i can just sense you know after all things we said you know just some of the frustration some of the anger some of the hurt some of the discontent is like right it's like bend down oh lord listen open your eyes oh god and see listen to shanesha rip's words she cries out before the lord god was his hiding place and so for us you know when crisis happens when our backs are against the wall we find ourselves you know sometimes acting out of character and only you know what is in character and out of character you know look beyond look beyond the physical sometimes we need to just take a step back and stop doing in the physical and begin to ask god what he may want to do beneath the surface because today he may be speaking to your heart about a deeper healing that he wants to do today he may be speaking to you in your circumstance of the fresh grace that he wants you to experience but it's only when we are willing to look beyond and allow him to come deeper beneath the surface that we can begin to grow and mature in the lord amen hallelujah amen if you're still with me just say a loud amen everyone say look up everyone say look beyond and finally look uh and and uh here's the final thing i almost forgot i throw in a bonus he confronted the enemy's lies as he looked beyond what was the basis of the enemy's accusations it was this that god really couldn't save them and hezekiah's trust in god was a mistake and to this hezekiah response i love some of these translations it makes it so real it says but of course you know the assyrians could destroy them they were not gods at all only idols of wood and stone that were shaped by human hands so he confronts the lie and exposes it in our dark moments this is the question to us what kind of false stories do we begin to believe about ourselves and of others that need to be exposed you know these are the stories that create in us sense of guilt for instance these create a sense of shame or bring up you know our greatest insecurities in our lives we stop being able to see you know people through the lens of god's love and we begin to see them in a negative light for instance we begin to believe the worst of their intentions instead of the best of them these are false stories that we believe in our dark moments how does hezekiah teach us to break through well we pierce the darkness with the light of god's word we begin to remember that we were created for a purpose that god's calling on our lives means that we have meaning we begin to remember that we are blessed we are loved we are accepted there is no condemnation under christ we begin to sit on god's word and stand upon it to say you know that every person is created in god's image and therefore we see the value in each and every person you see we pierce the darkness with the light of god's word he confronted the enemy's lies when we begin to look beyond you see we move first past our fear and secondly we we hide under the shadow of god's wing and it's that place where the lies of the enemy just begins to be exposed the strategies and the tools of the enemy begin to expose and it's like you know ii corinthians 10 verses 4 and 5 says we take every thought every straight thought and and put it to the obedience of christ we give god's word preeminence allow it to renew our minds and break through we look up we look beyond and finally we look down after we look up we look beyond the physical and then we look down again and see all around us we begin to see as god sees and what do we see above all else it is to see god's glory it is god's glory here's the most important question for me at least as i read this why did god answer hezekiah's prayer why did god save israel well the verses i won't go in that but you can read this i'll put the verses uh references down but there were two reasons when god spoke to hezekiah through isaiah he says number one it's because you prayed it's right there verse 20 it says because you prayed this alone should tell us the importance of praying can you imagine what happened if hezekiah didn't pray here's the second reason said for my name's sake for my name's sake it was for god's glory the bible tells us in verses like psalms 19 and isaiah 14 1 that that's and this was was an answer to hezekiah's prayer you know that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are god what is this prayer for it is for god to show his glory the bible tells us that all his works really are to display the glory of god whether it is god's goodness his magnificence his majesty his wonder his compassion his love his grace his wisdom all of it and more god's works are to display his glory and so god loves to answer this kind of prayers to show his glory why because his desire truly is to show and reveal himself to us in ever increasing measure and that's why you know if in all this you know what you don't know what to pray your back is against the wall you know you're facing a dead and one of the great things to pray as hezekiah did is god show your glory simply ask to show his glory and then it becomes you know it's god's choice and how he wants to answer how he shows his glory because it comes in different ways i don't know whether you realize sometimes god will answer this request to show his glory by by revealing an attribute a nature of himself that previously we may have minimized or missed entirely sometimes he will show his glory in a way that really just fills us in awe and and and gratefulness sometimes he shows his glory in an astounding miraculous way just like he did in this situation and where he wiped out you know there's a large chunk of the syrian army it is beyond human reasoning it is humanly impossible and sometimes god shows his glory when we receive the greater miracle of seeing his glory in and through our lives it's just like this man named nick voyacic uh you you probably know this man who has uh who was born without limbs without arms and without legs and as a child as you can imagine you know he questioned god all the time how can a god who loves me you know put me through such pain and and such suffering you know at one point the schools would not admit him the the children would bully him they would be cruel to him they would avoid him and several times you know he contemplated suicide you see it wasn't just a physical disability that he had mentally spiritually he was disabled by despair fear and what happened to him he often tells the story about how at the age of 15 he gives his lie he gave his life to the lord jesus after reading john 9 and it's a story about a man who was born blind he related to that story because he was born in this condition and in that passage of scripture this this blind man was actually healed but that wasn't what caught nick's attention what caught his attention was what jesus said that this man was born blind so that the works of god may be displayed in him [Music] it's the glory of god in that moment nick saw as god saw he saw now there was a purpose and that was what he was truly longing for there was a purpose in his life that god's glory could be seen in his life despite everything that he did not have and everything that he had to go through that was the turnaround point for nick because from then on after he he he realized this and he saw as god saw and he gave his heart to jesus god began to open doors for him to share his story to millions of people you know in the first seven years of his ministry as as a speaker he spoke 2 000 times across 44 countries on six continents and today you know he's written several books he lives what he calls it's actually a title of one of his books a ridiculously good life can you imagine somebody without hands and lips you know saying that he lives a ridiculously good life he has played golf he's played soccer he's gone surfing you know all these kinds of things today you know he has a beautiful family four children he has a ridiculously life he saw as god saw and he received the greater miracle god's glory in and through his life how do we stop dying and start living we look up we acknowledge reality that's happening all around us but we appeal to the highest authority we look beyond the physical what we see we realize god may be doing something beneath the surface because it's never just physical the battles that we're called to face and we look down then we see with fresh eyes as god sees his glory above all where does it start it starts with looking to jesus because in jesus god raised him from death to life the bible tells us that god raised christ from the dead and seated him at the right hand high above every power and principality and is the name above every other name not only in this age but in the age to come he is the highest authority and everything is placed under his feet it is in jesus that we can find healing because of the scars that he bores on on his back his broken body for us so that we can be made whole in every sense of the word body soul and spirit it is in jesus that we can receive peace the word says not as the world gives but as jesus give a peace that surpasses all understanding it is in jesus that god has fulfilled that prayer to show his glory in the fullest sense second corinthians verses 4 verses 6 it says to us for god who said let there be light in the darkness has made this light shine in our hearts why so that we could know the glory of god that is seen in the face of jesus christ let's all bow our heads right now and close our eyes oh beautiful savior [Music] i just sense today as as the spirit of lord and the presence of god is here as we just open our hearts to him i sense today there are some of you who are ready to open your heart to this jesus you've never heard maybe you have heard you've walked away or you've never received jesus today you want to give your heart to him where does it all start it starts by looking to jesus [Music] right now in this sacred moment there's no one looking around it's just you and god you are alone with him don't mind the person next to you that's you you open your heart to him i'm not going to lead you in a very simple prayer right now you can say this in your heart whether you're right here in this very room or wherever you are just say dear jesus i open my heart to you and i give you my life come right now i receive your grace your forgiveness your love [Music] show me your glory as i live for you and you alone jesus name amen lord i pray that right now that you seal that decision in every heart that has prayed that whether they are far from you or close to you or don't know you right now jesus i pray that you make your presence so real and you'll come and come and touch and seal this moment as a spiritual milestone so that your presence from now until forever lord will be such an intimacy as they walk with you and father lord i just pray right now for all of us listening to your word i pray for your hope to come back i pray for your strength and your deliverance lord for those of us who may be in a dark place today lord as we look up to you god i pray that you'll help us to see to see beyond the mountains of oppression god right now do a deep work within our own heart and in our spirit father that a deeper healing can come a deeper renewal can come a deeper revival can come o lord and in us as you work your glory in and through us father he will not just stop with us it will go from here into the city and to our family and into our workplace and into the nations from here and beyond oh god show us your glory [Music] we pray this lord in jesus precious name and all god's people said amen hallelujah give the lord a big clap offering and praise today he's worthy praise god you know what today if you've made that decision to give your hearts to the lord give your life to jesus please stay jasmine is going to tell you about how you can you can really connect with us we want to reach out we want to pray with you bless you celebrate with you and give you something to to really help you in the next steps of your journey and your relationship with jesus um but uh you know for now this is this is where i make my as it god bless all of you may you walk it is grace and see the glory of god in increasing measure every single day of your life in jesus name amen amen amen amen amen thank you pastor josh wow wow are you ready to look up to jesus are you ready to look beyond your circumstances and are you ready to look down and see as god sees what an amazing word pastor josh thank you so much for that for bringing his word so powerfully into our presence this morning and if that was you as pastor josh said if that was you and you received the lord jesus as your savior today we want to welcome you into the family this is the best decision of your life and there's a qr code coming up on your screen right now we want to invite you to just scan the qr code and a friendly face on the other side of the screen will come and greet you and help you along this journey we want to see god manifest in your life right with god's glory manifest in your life now if you've already received the lord jesus as your savior and you have a testimony to share of his goodness or you need prayer to overcome the challenges of life or you just want to connect with someone there's another qr code coming up on your screen right now as well we'd love to connect with you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you
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Channel: Skyline SIB
Views: 1,327
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Keywords: Church, Christian, skyline, skylinsib, online, Skyline Online, Jesus, Family, stay home, Kota kinabalu, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Faith
Id: M6M1L9NHu_g
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Length: 42min 24sec (2544 seconds)
Published: Sat Mar 05 2022
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